A former Army major was sentenced to more than 50 years in military prison after prosecutors said he preyed on women for years, mostly in Northern Virginia.
Jonathan Batt faced accusations from almost 20 women, some of whom said he attacked them on his yacht in the Potomac River.
Alexandria police and prosecutors decided not to file charges against Batt. More than a year later, Army criminal investigators filed charges, and a court martial handed down a severe punishment.
Women who agreed to share their stories with the News4 I-Team said the case took too long and the verdict can’t take away their pain. Some of the women said they met Batt on dating apps – and some found each other on an “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” Facebook page.
“He was selfish, sadist and sexually obsessed,” Capt. Stephanie Ryder, an Army prosecutor, told the I-Team.
Batt, who called his encounters with women consensual, is less than a month into a 53-year military prison sentence after a weekslong trial and yearslong investigation. For the women – many of whom allege they were assaulted while the long investigation carried on – the trauma doesn’t end.
Rachel Sirota said she met Batt through a friend as the worst of the COVID-19 crisis ended. She was one of almost 20 women who alleged Batt raped, bit, choked, slapped, sexually assaulted, tied up or touched them inappropriately from July 2020 to February 2023.
“The women in this case verbally and physically resisted,” Ryder told the I-Team. “Most of them testified that they verbally told Maj. Batt no or words to that affect. If they weren’t able to verbalize because of the strangulation that was happening or because of a force that was happening, they were trying to move their body away. They were trying escape from him. Many of the women testified that he physically overpowered them but they were smaller than him, that they were pinned down. That they were restrained and they could not physically get away.”
Sirota, a first grade special education teacher, alleges Batt raped her on a Jet Ski on the Potomac River at night. She initially didn’t report the assault to police, telling the I-Team she blamed herself and was trying to move on.
The three alleged victims who spoke with the I-Team agreed to use their names and show their faces publicly.
Victim testified she needed reconstructive surgery after Batt’s attack
Erica Carosella met Batt on a dating app, she told the I-Team.
“No was not a word that he understood,” she said.
She was the first victim to go to police.
“I am happy that I received justice, but quite honestly, it has been a long time coming. It’s been four years,” she said.
Carosella told the I-Team she told Alexandria police in a three-hour interview in August 2021 that after a short trip on Batt’s yacht – which he self-named the Batt Boat – the Army major forced himself on her at his apartment just hours after they first met.
“I pushed him off me. I pleaded with him that tonight was not the night,” she said.
Carosella had recently completed gender reassignment surgery and said she wasn’t medically cleared for sex. She was left bloodied, went to a hospital to collect evidence of a sexual assault and later testified she needed reconstructive surgery.
“For a long time, I felt like a walking piece of evidence,” she said.
Carosella initially asked police to back off from their investigation; she said she wasn’t ready to go forward. Alexandria police did back off but picked up the case again on her request a year later. By then, court documents show at least 10 other women claimed Batt assaulted them, too.
Women describe interviews with police – and then silence
Women who accused Batt of crimes found Emily Foster on an “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” Facebook page. She is among the women who said the investigation didn’t feel complete. She alleged Batt groped her and said she then recorded her conversation with a detective.
“He spoke to me for exactly 14 minutes,” Foster said.
Sirota spoke with a detective after investigators tracked her down based on a tip from another alleged victim. She also said her call with police was brief.
“Maybe like 20 minutes,” she said.
Alexandria passed on the case without charging Batt, but most of the victims said they never knew that.
“Those victims were interviewed and then never heard from law enforcement or anyone in the Alexandria Police Department or prosecutor’s office ever again,” said Ryan Guilds, the victims’ attorney.
Guilds, a lawyer with the Arnold Porter law firm, is one of several attorneys who represented the civilian victims on a pro bono basis. By federal law, civilian victims in military proceedings are not entitled to a lawyer to represent them.
“When I first learned of this case, I was very keen on identifying the victims in an appropriate way and to provide them with services,” Guilds told the I-Team. “Our whole goal is to give as much power back to that victim as possible.”
“I really didn’t hear anything until I was contacted by the military,” Sirota said.
Carosella, the woman who said she needed reconstructive surgery after being attacked by Batt, said she was told her case wasn’t strong enough.
What we know about Alexandria officials’ decision not to prosecute
Alexandria police told the I-Team the decision on whether to prosecute a case lies with the commonwealth’s attorney.
Citing “ethical concerns,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter declined to explain the decision not to prosecute Batt but said he was “gratified the military system was able to hold the offender accountable for his heinous acts.”
‘This case sends a message’
The case was eventually prosecuted by Ryder, the Army prosecutor, and Lt. Col. Greg Vetere with Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel.
“This case is really important. I think this case sends a message that the Army doesn’t tolerate this kind of behavior,” Vetere said.
“This is just something that was against all of the Army values which we hold dear. This was someone [Batt] who knew better. This was someone that was educated at West Point, went through Ranger School, had served for many years. He knows what right looks like, and he did everything against what right looks like with each and every one of the victims in this case.”
“It was hard to imagine that these women, none of whom really knew each other, would make up something like this,” he added.
But that is what Batt told the jury.
“He testified that these women wanted this and that he was fulfilling a need for them,” Ryder said. “Maj. Batt had this compulsion. He could not control himself in any scenario. It didn’t matter if that woman was someone he met on Bumble or Tinder or if it was a new member to his unit who had arrived for their first day of work that he found attractive.”
Batt told the military panel he “chased the wrong things and dated more than I should.” He said all of the experiences were consensual.
Batt’s claim was upsetting, Sirota said.
“To even, like, call it romantic is extremely violating,” she said.
Only after his conviction did Batt apologize for hurting anyone.
‘Robbed me of my sense of safety and self’
Batt was convicted of 20 specific violations of military law against Carosella and seven other women.
Carosella said she feels “a big sense of relief.”
That sense of relief is something Sirota never got. Since the jury didn’t convict on her allegations, she didn’t get the chance to read her victim impact statement to Batt in court.
“How do I explain the ways you’ve robbed me of my sense of safety and self?” she wrote.
“You’re present on every first date. There for the first time someone new touches me. You’re the wave of fear and anxiety that I feel every time someone expresses interest in me or passes me on the street at night,” she wrote. “Even five years later, my life continues to be dictated by your choices.”
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
