Ohio State Army ROTC Lt. Colonel Michael Kelvington, as pictured on the university’s Army ROTC website. Credit: Courtesy of The Ohio State University
A former military professor at Ohio State has agreed to plead guilty in a military trial involving charges of a prohibited sexual relationship with an ROTC cadet.
Originally pleading not guilty, Lt. Col. Michael Kelvington, a former military science and leadership professor and a leader of ROTC, is scheduled to go before a judge on Feb. 9-10 to see if his plea deal will be accepted.
The six charges and 10 specifications include sexual harassment, abuse of a training leadership position, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned office, assault consummated by a battery and conduct unbecoming of an officer, Michelle McCaskill, director of communication for the Army Special Trial Counsel, said in an email.
Kelvington’s plea agreement will only be publicly revealed if the judge accepts the deal, McCaskill said. If the judge does not accept, they can rule for the case to be litigated in a contested court-martial.
Kelvington and his defense counsel did not respond in time for publication.
In a separate investigation conducted by the Office of Institutional Equity, better known as OIE, and concluded in August 2024, Ohio State found “sufficient evidence” of Kelvington having a prohibited relationship with an ROTC cadet, stalking and continuous sexual misconduct, per prior Lantern reporting.
A month before, Kelvington was relieved of his university position and reassigned from Ohio State within the Army Cadet Command.
Kelvington submitted an appeal of the findings, but it was found there was no basis for re-examination, per prior Lantern reporting.
Key Information
In records obtained by The Lantern in August 2025, OIE received anonymous reports in December 2023 and January 2024 and began investigating Kelvington’s actions over a month later.
The allegations began before the investigation and continued during the inquiry, but the specific dates were removed from the report.
The complainant, an ROTC cadet, said that she was a strong student, but during the spring 2024 semester, she didn’t turn in half of her assignments and repeatedly skipped classes. She said “her interactions with Michael Kelvington have made it difficult to focus on work and impacted friendships and her mental health.”
The cadet said in the report she viewed Kelvington as an inspiration for her career goals, “frequently ask[ing] him questions about the military, ranger school and ‘problems in ROTC.’”
Described in the report, Kelvington repeatedly contacted the cadet to “meet and engage in a sexual relationship with him” despite the cadet asking him to stop contacting her. In one instance on Jan. 6, 2024, the report said Kelvington served the cadet bourbon and had non-consensual sex with her while drunk.
On another instance, the cadet said Kelvington wanted to have sex in her new vehicle at an on-campus parking lot. Although the cadet said she was nervous because she didn’t want to get in trouble, Kelvington convinced her to comply.
There were other incidents between Kelvington and the cadet engaging in sexual activity, all of which Kelvington denied.
The cadet said she and Kelvington would use Signal to communicate with her, an app that encrypts and deletes messages after one hour, according to the summary. Using the app, the cadet said Kelvington constantly texted her, and said that he would repeatedly say he loved her and how special she was. If she didn’t respond within an hour, he would send her multiple text messages in a row.
“‘He’s the head of our battalion… a mentor that I’ve looked up to for years, and I felt like really uncomfortable, but I also felt like I couldn’t say anything to like, kind of get out of that,’” the cadet said in the report.
In the summary, the cadet said she attempted to cut contact with Kelvington seven times before he stopped contacting her.
Kelvington and the cadet met during the investigation because Kelvington said she was distressed about the inquiry. One witness saw this and submitted pictures and a video of them in her car. Kelvington said he did not try to “dissuade her from sharing information or making any individual decisions regarding the investigation.”
On another date, Kelvington asked the cadet to meet him at a hotel and when she did, she told him she was done talking to him. At that time, Kelvington was given a no contact order by the Army to stop communicating with ROTC cadets, the report said.
“At the risk of further causing damage to my already violated no contact order, I can’t withhold my silence anymore,” Kelvington said in a text sent to the cadet, submitted in the OIE investigation. “I need to know you’re ok. I am going crazy without hearing from you. And I’m sorry for bothering you.”
The OIE spoke with 17 witnesses, most of whom were Ohio State students and ROTC cadets. Kevin Cullen, the assistant vice provost of military and veteran services, and Doug Huber, president of the ROTC Alumni Society, were among the four named witnesses.
The Lantern can confirm the reported incidents had a primary complainant in addition to the alleged reports from other people. The identity of who reported which event cannot be confirmed, as identifying names, dates and events were removed from the investigative report.
