Navy Academy Sexual Assault Case Pushed Back Once More Due to Bad Weather

The sexual assault trial involving a United States Naval Academy football player has been pushed back once more due to bad weather, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

Lawyers on the case of Joshua Tate, who has been accused of sexually assaulting a female classmate during a 2012 party, are scheduled to make their opening statements on Tuesday instead.

The delay comes just three days after presiding Judge Col. Daniel Daugherty sent jurors home before the trial was scheduled to begin on Friday morning at the Washington Navy Yard, the Washington Post reported.

Tate's attorney Jason Ehrenberg reportedly told Col. Daugherty that Tate experienced "a change of heart," and didn't want the jury to hear his case.

Tate was prompted to make the change to a bench trial after Ehrenberg expressed worry that the prosecution would try to "mislead" jurors about the definition of sexual assault.

Ehrenberg told the judge that some government officials had prepared questions for jurors that might "mislead" them about what constitutes sexual assault in the scope of "substantial incapacitation."

"The judge presumably will have less of a chance of getting confused," Ehrenberg stated, according to the Washington Post.

The midshipman who was reportedly sexually assaulted by Tate said she had been drinking a lot of alcohol on the night in question, and didn't remember many details of the evening. She said friends told her she'd had sexual relations with more than one person at the party days after. The unidentified United States Naval Academy student allegedly engaged in sexual activity with Tate in a car parked outside the party in April of 2012, the Post reported.

Tate faces at least 30 years in prison if he's found guilty of sexual assault and lying to investigators, along with a dishonorable discharge and a slew of other punishments. Initially, Tate was involved in the case with two other Navy football players. But the charges against Tra'ves Bush and Eric Graham were eventually dropped, the Post reported.

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