COURT HEARING CONFIRMS COAST GUARD INVOLVEMENT IN ASSAULT ON MUSEUM DIRECTOR

At a sentencing hearing in Arlington County (Virginia) Circuit Court it was revealed that an assailant who brutality attacked a museum director was the son of a U.S. Coast Guard admiral.

The victim, John Edward Hurley, president of the Confederate Memorial Association who had been the director of the Confederate Memorial Hall museum and library in Washington, D.C., was assaulted in a McDonald's Restaurant in Arlington. He was hospitalized for a knee operation and was left permanently impaired.

Hurley has been in litigation concerning the Confederate Memorial Association for fifteen years (www.confederate.org). He had previously identified the involvement of the U.S. Coast Guard with that litigation. Hurley said that he had personally objected to the Coast Guard's participation in the lawsuit against him to Admiral James Loy, former commandant of the Coast Guard.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta recently appointed Admiral Loy as Deputy Under Secretary for Transportation Security and Chief Operating Officer of the Transportation Security Administration.

"It is difficult for the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Department of Transportation to credibly claim key roles in homeland security and also be involved in the physical and legal brutalization of American citizens," Hurley said.

The assailant, Marshall Gilbert Jr., in addition to being charged with the assault on Hurley, was also charged with assaulting police officers who were called to the scene. After a plea agreement was entered, Judge Benjamin Kendrick sentenced Gilbert to five years, with all but time served suspended. No restitution was ordered for Hurley.

Hurley's victim statement submitted for the court record was mysteriously not included in the case files.