By WARREN WOODBERRY JR. and FERNANDA SANTOS, DAILY NEWS STAFF hahahahahaRS
A West Point cadet snapped illicit pictures of female classmates and posted them online where other cadets could ogle them, Army officials charge.
Mark Conliffe, a senior at the U.S. Military Academy, is accused of taking photographs of eight women, most of them fellow cadets, in various states of undress without their knowledge, officials said.
He then loaded the photos into his computer, which is hooked to the academy's network, and made them accessible to other cadets, an academy spokesman said.
Conliffe, 23, faces up to 25 years in military confinement, dismissal from the Army and could lose the right to graduate with his class.
"This is a heartbreak," Conliffe's father, Ken, told the Daily News yesterday in a phone interview from his home in Louisville, Ky.
"Mark worked very hard and he was getting ready for graduation," Ken Conliffe said. "He's been on the honor roll just about every year at West Point. He's a great kid."
West Point officials stumbled upon the photographs during a routine check of cadets' computer files, Lt. Col. James Whaley, West Point's director of public affairs, said in a statement.
Whaley would not say how or where Conliffe allegedly took the photos.
The Times Herald-Record of Middletown, N.Y., reported yesterday that the photos date back to May 2002 and that the female subjects had been notified about the pictures.
Conliffe has been charged with 15 violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Armed Forces' equivalent of criminal counts.
He was formally charged Thursday with unlawful entry, conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman and violation of a lawful general order.
"West Point takes these allegations very seriously and will thoroughly investigate all incidents of this nature," Whaley said.
A 6-foot-3 offensive tackle for the Army Black Knights football team, Conliffe is still allowed to attend class and perform his regular duties as a cadet, a spokesman said. He has not been detained. His name, however, appeared to have been removed from the online version of the football team's roster.
Conliffe was a straight-A student at Trinity High School in Louisville, where he was known as "Cyber Boy," a nickname he earned after posing for a high school ad campaign with wires attached to his head.
Conliffe is majoring in art, philosophy and literature and lists field artillery as his preferred branch of service, according to his online student profile.
At the academy, he earned the coveted Recondo Badge, awarded for excellence in training.
"We're aware there have been some charges, but we stand by our son," his mother, Michele Conliffe, told The News.
"We're very proud of him and we support him."
At the campus yesterday, where a black marble monument is emblazoned with the motto, "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those that do," cadets approached by the Daily News politely declined to discuss the allegations. "I'm not informed enough to comment, sir," several told a reporter.
The U.S. military has struggled over the years in its inclusion of women in the ranks. Last year, dozens of female cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. reported being raped or sexually assaulted. In 1991, the Navy was rocked by the infamous Tailhook scandal when women complained they had been groped by drunken pilots at a convention.
A West Point cadet snapped illicit pictures of female classmates and posted them online where other cadets could ogle them, Army officials charge.
Mark Conliffe, a senior at the U.S. Military Academy, is accused of taking photographs of eight women, most of them fellow cadets, in various states of undress without their knowledge, officials said.
He then loaded the photos into his computer, which is hooked to the academy's network, and made them accessible to other cadets, an academy spokesman said.
Conliffe, 23, faces up to 25 years in military confinement, dismissal from the Army and could lose the right to graduate with his class.
"This is a heartbreak," Conliffe's father, Ken, told the Daily News yesterday in a phone interview from his home in Louisville, Ky.
"Mark worked very hard and he was getting ready for graduation," Ken Conliffe said. "He's been on the honor roll just about every year at West Point. He's a great kid."
West Point officials stumbled upon the photographs during a routine check of cadets' computer files, Lt. Col. James Whaley, West Point's director of public affairs, said in a statement.
Whaley would not say how or where Conliffe allegedly took the photos.
The Times Herald-Record of Middletown, N.Y., reported yesterday that the photos date back to May 2002 and that the female subjects had been notified about the pictures.
Conliffe has been charged with 15 violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Armed Forces' equivalent of criminal counts.
He was formally charged Thursday with unlawful entry, conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman and violation of a lawful general order.
"West Point takes these allegations very seriously and will thoroughly investigate all incidents of this nature," Whaley said.
A 6-foot-3 offensive tackle for the Army Black Knights football team, Conliffe is still allowed to attend class and perform his regular duties as a cadet, a spokesman said. He has not been detained. His name, however, appeared to have been removed from the online version of the football team's roster.
Conliffe was a straight-A student at Trinity High School in Louisville, where he was known as "Cyber Boy," a nickname he earned after posing for a high school ad campaign with wires attached to his head.
Conliffe is majoring in art, philosophy and literature and lists field artillery as his preferred branch of service, according to his online student profile.
At the academy, he earned the coveted Recondo Badge, awarded for excellence in training.
"We're aware there have been some charges, but we stand by our son," his mother, Michele Conliffe, told The News.
"We're very proud of him and we support him."
At the campus yesterday, where a black marble monument is emblazoned with the motto, "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those that do," cadets approached by the Daily News politely declined to discuss the allegations. "I'm not informed enough to comment, sir," several told a reporter.
The U.S. military has struggled over the years in its inclusion of women in the ranks. Last year, dozens of female cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. reported being raped or sexually assaulted. In 1991, the Navy was rocked by the infamous Tailhook scandal when women complained they had been groped by drunken pilots at a convention.
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