Judge rules alleged rape of US Navy civilian engineer by ship’s captain was ‘within her duties’, should be treated as a ‘work injury’

A lawsuit brought by a civilian engineer working on a US Navy ship alleging she was raped by the ship’s captain has been halted by a New Jersey judge. As per Stars and Stripes, her report of Captain Yamil Sanchez Padilla entering her locked room at night to rape her must be treated as a workers’ comp claim.

Elsie Dominguez, a US Merchant Marine Academy graduate, filed her lawsuit against the U.S. Government in November 2025. She alleges that she was working on the expeditionary transport vessel the USNS Carson City in December 2021 when it stopped in Brindisi, Italy.

Dominguez says she left the ship and felt overly intoxicated after one beer and a shot of liquor, and now suspects that her drink was spiked. She says she returned to her room on board and locked the door. However, while she was sleeping, she says that Captain Padilla used his master code to enter her room in the middle of the night and that she awoke to find him raping her.

“I hope that someday you can forgive me”

Her claim is backed up by a text she says the captain sent to her the next day: “I am so embarrassed by what I did to you that I do not even have the strength to see you face to face … I hope that someday you can forgive me. You have a very special place in my heart and I appreciate you very much. Perhaps more than I should. I wish you the best.”

Dominguez also alleges the captain prevented her from getting a drug test the next day, saying he threatened to derail her career. She then spoke to the command’s sexual assault response coordinator, but was told she couldn’t make a restricted report preventing her personal information from being passed up the chain of command, which would have effectively ended her employment.

All of this resulted in her lawsuit, which has been hotly contested by the Justice Department. They argued that anything that occurred while Dominguez was on the ship, even when off duty, is covered by the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, claiming that her alleged rape was a workplace injury.

Judge Edward Kiel of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey agreed. Stars and Stripes says that it’s been determined the alleged rape was “within her duties” and that it should be handled as a “work injury”.

Dominguez’s attorney, Christine Dunn, didn’t mince her words: “It’s very frustrating because even in their own papers, the government says being sexually assaulted should never be part of a mariner’s job. But yet, that’s essentially what they have to conclude to find that it’s workers’ compensation.”

Dunn also said it’s bizarre to treat rape on the same level as a workplace injury like a dislocated shoulder suffered when a ship rolls unexpectedly: “Those are injuries that happen in the course of performing your duties on a ship. That is very different from being raped in your sleep in your bed. That should not be workers’ comp.”

As for Captain Padilla? He was investigated and placed on paid administrative leave, and claimed the encounter was alcohol-fuelled but consensual. In 2025, Coast Guard prosecutors issued a complaint of sexual misconduct against him, though the criminal case was apparently withdrawn after he agreed to surrender his merchant mariner credentials.