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A man at a National Science Foundation base in Antarctica was accused of assaulting a female colleague.
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The female employee said Stephen Tyler Bieneman choked her with his leg.
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Bieneman was arrested in Antarctica and transported to Hawaii.
A man from a search and rescue team at the U.S. National Science Foundation base in Antarctica was arrested and transported to Hawaii after being charged with assaulting a female colleague, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court Hawaii.
Officials charged Stephen Tyler Bieneman with assault within the maritime and territorial jurisdiction, according to an indictment filed Dec. 12.
The incident occurred at the McMurdo Station, one of three research stations operated by the National Science Foundation under the U.S. Antarctic Program, according to a federal affidavit filed by Deputy U.S. Marshal Marc E. Tunstall, a federal agent stationed in Antarctica.
Tunstall writes in the affidavit that he was made aware of an attack on McMurdo on November 25. The victim, a woman, had initially disclosed that she would not name herself or the man she said assaulted her, but she later agreed to meet with Tunstall, a doctor, and a sexual assault attorney present, according to the declaration under oath.
The woman, a US citizen, told Tunstall that while she and Bieneman — whom she described as a casual boyfriend — were sitting on a couch, she tried to fool him by taking his name tag and jokingly saying she didn’t would return. She then said, according to court documents, that they both got up and sat behind the couch when Bieneman “put her on her back, placed his left shin over her throat and started going through her overalls pocket” to find his name tag.
According to the affidavit, the woman told Tunstall she then tapped Bieneman’s leg, making a “suffocation symbol” to indicate she couldn’t breathe, but he didn’t remove his leg until he found his name tag, which took a minute. The woman rated the pain an 8 out of 10, according to the affidavit.
She was eventually helped by another man who helped her get medical care, according to court documents.
Bieneman made his first court appearance Thursday and was released on $25,000 unsecured bail.
His first hearing is scheduled for January 12, 2023, before Magistrate Kenneth J. Mansfield.
A public defender representing Bieneman and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
The NSF employs thousands of scientists, staffers and military personnel through the US Antarctic Program to oversee research operations in the southernmost continent.
Beatings, especially sexual assault against women, have long been documented in the remote base of Antarctica. A report released by the NSF in June found that many employees viewed sexual harassment as a pervasive problem.
More than 70% of female respondents and nearly 50% of male respondents said sexual harassment is a problem within the US Antarctic Program, while 47% of female respondents and 33% of male respondents said sexual assault is a problem.
“Every woman I knew there had an assault or harassment experience that happened on ice,” one person said in the report.
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