Adjunct professor and retired navy captain Lawrence Brennan was quoted in a Navy Times article discussing the litigation surrounding the burning of USS Bonhomme Richard.
After more than a year of Navy silence regarding how the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard came to burn for four days while moored in San Diego last year, details have emerged about who the sea service thinks started the inferno and what consequences that junior sailor may face.
Seaman Apprentice Ryan Sawyer Mays, 20, a former SEAL candidate who washed out of the elite training pipeline before reporting to the amphib, has been charged with arson and hazarding a vessel in connection to the blaze, which started on July 12, 2020.
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Mays’ defense team has “an ironclad Constitutional right” to examine the ship themselves, according to Lawrence Brennan, a retired Navy captain, law professor and attorney who specializes in maritime and admiralty law.
“It’s not enough for (Mays’ defense team) to rely on photographs or statements from government witnesses, or the government’s external experts,” Brennan told Navy Times.
If that right was denied, he said, it’s an opportunity for the defense.
“A ship’s owner who’s in a hurry to get rid of evidence isn’t going to be looked on favorably in court,” Brennan added.