Norfolk, VA: A Marine staff sergeant pleaded guilty Tuesday to mistreating 17 male subordinates by touching them in the groin, repeatedly making offensive sexual comments and gestures, and accusing them of being gay. (At Right: Staff Sgt. James McCoy whose military duty was to hit men in their balls and tease them with gay photos.)

Staff Sgt. James McCoy could have faced 17 years in prison for the offenses; a judge sentenced him to a year in confinement, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge.

McCoy was the noncommissioned officer in charge of a training company at the Navy's Northwest Annex, a base in rural Chesapeake. It was his job to oversee Marines - many of them teenagers fresh out of boot camp and infantry school - waiting to begin a security training course at the base. He was also in charge of injured Marines placed on medical hold who were waiting to return to duty or be processed out of the service.

It was in that capacity that McCoy admitted to regularly "sack-tapping" his subordinates, which was defined in court as hitting someone in the genitals with the front or back of the hand.

He also played what his attorneys referred to as games of "gay chicken," in which he would put his hand on a subordinate's thigh or other body part to see what the Marine would do and to deliberately make him feel uncomfortable. He told the judge he did that with numerous subordinates while on duty and in various places on base: his office, his car, and in the barracks where junior personnel lived.

All the recipients of his abuse were several ranks below him. According to military law, each case of "maltreatment" of a subordinate - an act considered cruel, oppressive or sexually harassing - is punishable by up to a year in prison.

McCoy also acknowledged making homosexual taunts to more than a dozen Marines - ranging from "Does your mother know you're gay?" to telling them it was OK to come out of the closet.

Navy Capt. Moira Modzelewski, the military judge at the Norfolk court-martial, methodically went through each of the 17 counts of maltreatment, each with a different victim, asking McCoy what motivated him. Invariably, he responded: "To embarrass him," "To make him feel uncomfortable" or "To degrade him."

One incident went past making suggestive comments and hitting Marines in the genitals. McCoy confessed to showing a subordinate a cell-phone video of a man giving another man oral sex.

In response to questioning from the judge, McCoy said his behavior belittled the Marines he was supposed to lead, and may have resulted in physical and mental pain.

However, his attorneys' line of questioning during the sentencing phase of the court-martial - and McCoy's own unsworn statement at the end - seemed intended to portray his actions as less than criminal. They asked witnesses whether sack-tapping was unusual among Marines of equal rank and implied that Marine Corps Security Forces Training Company had a culture of joking about homosexuality. (To read the entire article, Click Here.)

Note from Ron: And what was the marine's sentence? A year in confinement and demotion in rank. Had he sexually abused female marines this way, he would have had his own balls tapped permanently.)