Serving Great Neck, G.N. Plaza, G.N. Estates, Kensington, Kings Point, Lake Success, Russell Gardens, Saddle Rock and Thomaston
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Friday, September 1, 2023
Vol. 98, No. 35
SCHOOLS & EDUCATION
RACIST GRAFFITI FOUND AT HERRICKS SCHOOL
BLAKEMAN SIGN SCUTTLE FUNDRAISER
PAGES 21-32
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Engineer surrenders license as case ends Edgar Sison charged with sexually assaulting cadet in 2019 BY K A R I N A KO VA C
PHOTO COURTESY OF JAMIE BAUM
United States Merchant Marine Academy 2022 graduate Hope Hicks felt a measure of justice after the engineer that allegedly assaulted her has given up his license to work on the sea.
Mariner engineer Edgar Sison has surrendered his professional license to work at sea rather than go to trial in the Midshipman-X case, according to the Coast Guard. “Mr. Sison voluntarily surrendered his credential to the Coast Guard in lieu of an administrative hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). The Coast Guard subsequently filed a Motion for Withdrawal, which was granted,” the Coast Guard said in an email to Blank Slate Media. The decision comes a week after the Coast Guard charged him with sexually assaulting a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy cadet in 2019. “Sexual misconduct has no place in the maritime industry. Everyone has the right to work in an environment free from fear and harassment,” the Coast Guard said. “The Coast Guard
conducted a suspension and revocation investigation into the alleged sexual assault and filed administrative charges against Mr. Sison, which resulted in Mr. Sison voluntarily surrendering his credential in lieu of an administrative hearing. The Coast Guard is committed to preventing sexual misconduct in the maritime industry and responding to allegations in a timely, professional, and consistent manner.” The allegations stem from an incident in 2019 that started a maritime ‘me too’ movement in which Sison was accused of raping a cadet named Hope Hicks from the USMMA in Kings Point; she is now in the Navy. Her identity originally was anonymous, and under the alias Midshipman-X, she wrote a blog post on the Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy website about her Sea Year sexual assault onboard the Fairfax Alliance. Hicks was the only female on-
board. On June 14, 2022, 8 and a half months after she published her anonymous recount and four days before her graduation from the academy, Midshipman-X revealed her identity in a lawsuit filed against Maersk Line, Limited. Hicks was joined in her lawsuit by a second USMMA student who had also supposedly been sexually harassed and subjected to a pattern of unwanted sexual touching aboard the same Maersk ship. Maersk Line officials they terminated five crew members after conducting an investigation of the assault. Six other senior maritime officials have either surrendered their license or accepted Coast Guard suspensions in the years following the allegations of sexual assault while at sea, records show. Continued on Page 45
Horvat called for fill violation in Manhasset BY K A R I N A KO VA C A lawsuit has been filed in Nassau County Supreme Court asking for a nullification of a decision made by the Village of Plandome Manor’s Board of Zoning Appeals on July 20 to approve site fill exceeding the village code at a home on 1362 Plandome Road.
The lawsuit names Great Neck property owner and New York Islanders center Bowie Horvat, his wife Holly, and the Village of Plandome Manor as defendants. Eastern LLC, a limited liability company that owns property at 1 Stonytown Road, filed the suit and is represented by the law firm Rivkin Radler.
The lawsuit centers around a decision made by the BZA, which approved the deposit of 350 cubic yards of fill adjacent to and uphill from Leeds Pond in Great Neck. This amount of fill exceeds the maximum limit of 50 cubic yards that the Village of Plandome Manor’s Building Department is authorized to allow, according to village code. “Instead of considering the environmental harm that would be caused bygranting the Application, and without doing any environmental review under New York State Environmental Review Act (“SEQRA”) the BZA stated that it would not consider any testimony about the
environmental impact on Leeds Pound caused by the fill,” the suit states. “Instead, the BZA incorrectly asserted that only the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) could consider the environmental impacts of granting the application.” The suit also said the BZA also violated “a number of procedural requirements, including utilizing absolutely no criteria to determine whether the application should be granted” and by going into Executive Session “without any explanation immediately prior to the vote togrant the application, by refusing to allow the introduction of evidence showing runoff from the fill
to Leeds Pond that occurred after the initial public hearing, and by refusing to allow a neighboring property owner to testify as to the runoff onto his property caused by the fill.” Efforts to reach The Village of Plandome Manor were unavailing. While the Horvats are mentioned in the filing, they have not been present at the BZA meetings and had the case for more site fill argued for them during the meetings. The petition filed by Eastern LLC seeks to nullify the BZA’s decision and argues that the excessive fill poses environmental risks, including the discharge of nitrogen, into Leeds Pond. Continued on Page 46