Eric Litke | Appleton Post-Crescent

Wochit/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy has dropped a homicide charge against a Wisconsin commander involved in a deadly ship collision last year, although he will still face a general court-martial on multiple charges.

The decision announced Tuesday means Cmdr. Bryce Benson can face significantly harsher discipline than the commander in another deadly Navy collision around the same time.

Adm. James Caldwell — the Navy authority overseeing discipline in the case — decided Benson will face two counts of negligent dereliction of duty resulting in death and one count of negligent hazarding (navigation) of a vessel. The Navy has not said when the general court-martial will occur.

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Benson, a graduate of Marquette University whose parents live in Waushara County, was in his sleeping quarters when a Philippine container ship crashed broadside into his 505-foot destroyer off Japan in the middle of the night on June 17, 2017. Seven sailors died in the collision, which took place five weeks after Benson took command of the ship.

Justin Henderson, Benson's attorney, noted in a statement Tuesday that the reduced charges are a reversal for Caldwell.

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"The evidence now before Adm. Caldwell was the same evidence that initially caused him to bring a negligent homicide charge against Cmdr. Benson," Henderson said. "As the government apparently concedes, that charge was not warranted. A fair trial will reveal the remaining charges are likewise unsupported by the facts."

Caldwell’s decision to handle Benson’s case through a general court-martial shows the Navy views his case more severely than that of Cmdr. Alfredo Sanchez, who was in command of the USS McCain when it collided with another ship in August in the same area, killing 10 sailors.

Last month Caldwell sent Sanchez to a special court-martial — similar to a misdemeanor trial, with lesser potential punishment — and Sanchez agreed to plead guilty to negligent dereliction of duty resulting in death. He was given a letter of reprimand, a $6,000 loss of pay and agreed to retire from the Navy.

Like Benson, Sanchez was initially charged with negligent homicide.

Lawrence Brennan, a retired U.S. Navy attorney who handled numerous marine fatality cases, said the Navy appears to be taking Benson's case more seriously because he was not on the bridge at the time of the collision. Sanchez was on the bridge, although he acknowledged making poor decisions before his ship crashed into an oil tanker near Singapore.

"We have had a tradition of taking action against captains for collisions that occur when they’re not on the bridge of their ship," said Brennan, who retired as a captain and is now an adjunct law professor at Fordham University.

Brennan said there was a lack of communication on the USS Fitzgerald in not spotting the approaching ships or sounding alarms before impact that could have saved lives. Those reveal "a serious management training, leadership issue," he said.

Benson's charges carry penalties that could include dismissal from the Navy — meaning a loss of his pension — and up to two years behind bars, Brennan said. But he said time in the brig would be "unprecedented" for an offense like this that was not intentional. He expects Benson to ultimately leave the Navy and receive a letter of reprimand and financial penalty similar to Sanchez.

The Fitzgerald and McCain collisions were two of four Navy mishaps in quick succession in Asia in 2017 — all of which the Navy termed "avoidable" or primarily the result of human error. The incidents came two years after a report from the Government Accountability Office warned of increasing risk from limited training, reduced maintenance and a surge in deployed time for ships like the USS Fitzgerald that are based overseas.

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Memorial service for seven USS Fitzgerald sailors

The other two incidents, which did not result in deaths, were the USS Lake Champlain colliding with a fishing vessel in the Sea of Japan in May and the USS Antietam running aground in Tokyo Bay in January.

The Navy also announced Tuesday that it has dropped homicide charges against two officers serving under Benson. Lt. Natalie Combs will face a general court-martial on counts of negligent dereliction of duty resulting in death and negligent hazarding of a vessel. All charges were dismissed against Lt. Irian Woodley, although she likely will be forced to leave the Navy.

Caldwell ordered Combs to a general court-martial even though the officer who presided over the preliminary hearing for both Combs and Woodley recommended neither face a court-martial, said her attorney David Sheldon.

"The blame in this case is widespread. The Fitzgerald had systemic problems with its equipment and training," Sheldon said in a press release. "To single this young woman, who has served honorably and with distinction, for prosecution is very troubling."

Four other Fitzgerald officers have received non-judicial punishment, such as reduced pay and letters of reprimand. They include Lt. Junior Grade Sarah Coppock, the officer in charge of navigation at the time of the collision, who testified last month that the ship’s radar had recently stopped working and she had been instructed by Benson to maintain a speed of 20 knots in the heavily trafficked shipping channel, according to Stars and Stripes, an independent military news organization.

Navy rules require the commanding officers be notified when other ships are nearby, but Coppock said there was an unspoken culture on the Fitzgerald to not follow that order in the area because it would have required waking Benson “every five minutes.”

Henderson disputed that in a statement last month, saying Benson was never alerted the ship was in danger, “in direct contravention of his standing orders.”

Benson is continuing to recover from a traumatic brain injury suffered when the container ship struck the USS Fitzgerald directly outside his sleeping quarters.

Benson, whose Navy biography calls him a Green Bay native, attended Middleton High School in Dane County for ninth and 10th grades before moving to Michigan. He graduated from Marquette University in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in history and earned his commission through Marquette’s Naval ROTC program.