|
by Nathaniel R. Helms |
June 30, 2008
______________________________________________________
The
federal trial of former Marine Sgt Jose L. Nazario is on hold
until August 19, Defend Our Marines has learned.
Presiding US District Judge Steven Larsen issued the order last week.
Nazario’s trial was scheduled to begin July 8 at the US District Court
for Central California at Riverside.
Judge
Larsen has also issued an unusual order to Nazario’s defense attorney
Kevin B. McDermott to keep the Grand Jury testimony he received in
discovery secret, and to return the transcripts to the court
undisclosed to the public upon the completion of the case.
The
delay in the Nazario case prolongs the ordeal for Marine sergeants
Jermaine Nelson and Ryan Weemer, accused of unpremeditated murder and
dereliction of duty. They remain in federal custody in the San
Bernardino County Jail for contempt of court. Both Marines have
refused to cooperate with government prosecutors who provided them
with immunity in return for their testimony. The two have also refused
to cooperate with government investigators since being indicted in
late spring.
Nelson
and Weemer (who was shot three times at Fallujah in a face-to-face
gunfight with a suspected Chechen terrorist) are confined to a 12-man
holding cell for refusing to testify against Nazario, said McDermott
from his Orange County office.
“They
are tough, they survived worse in Fallujah and are hanging in there,
said Joseph E. Low IV, Nelson’s lawyer.
Both
men voluntarily appeared before Larsen in response to government
subpoenas.
Since
being jailed the Marine Corps has stopped all their pay and allowances
for being absent without leave, Lowe said.
“They
(USMC) told them, “We appreciate your trying to protect the honor of
the Corps and all that, but we are stopping your pay anyway,’”
McDermott explained.
Low,
the former Marine infantryman representing Nelson, said Monday that he
intends to appear before Judge Larsen on Tuesday at 12:30 PM Pacific
Time seeking to have the two Marines returned to Camp Pendleton while
the case is on hold.
“Hopefully I will have some good news tomorrow, “Low said.
Government prosecutors are trying to force Weemer and Nelson to tell
the Grand Jury what happened at Fallujah on November 9, 2004 when four
enemy combatants were allegedly killed on Nazario’s orders. They were
captured with their ammunition and weapons in a house being used by
the insurgency as a strong point to resist the attack.
Weemer
was jailed June 12 for telling Larsen he would not testify against
Nazario. Nelson was jailed by Larsen for the second
time last week on an identical contempt of court complaint. Both men
could be held for up to 18 months or until the grand jury is
dismissed, their lawyers said.
US
District Judge Percy Anderson ordered Nelson jailed in Los Angeles in
late May 22 after Nelson refused several opportunities to testify and
released him a week later.
The
investigation into the 2004 incident began after Weemer made
admissions of misconduct while undergoing a polygraph examination for
employment with the United States Secret Service. The Secret Service
forwarded the information to the Naval Criminal Investigation Service
for investigation.
Special
Agent Mark Fox managed to extract admissions from Nelson in the spring
of 2007 before he was represented by legal counsel. Fox then used his
testimony as the basis for the government’s complaint.
Nazario
claims the incident never happened.
Several
other Marines who were there that day refused to testify, offered
conflicting testimony, or swore they had no knowledge of the
allegations.
Investigators for the government claim to have located a site that the
alleged killings occurred. This claim is based upon a photograph taken
by a Marine who photographed the exterior of a house in Fallujah and
sent to his mother in Texas, the evidence shows. The Marine told Fox
he took the picture for posterity sake, as it was the first occasion
he was able to use his demolition skills on the battlefield.
From
the photograph, investigators claim they identified a location within
the city and subsequently contacted the occupants of the house. The
occupants were interviewed and told the investigators they had been in
Syria for medical treatment at the time of the operation.
The
owners of the reputed crime scene then told investigators that when
they returned to the house they did not observe any bodies or other
evidence of conflict in the house, evidence already introduced
revealed.
Defense
attorneys claim that because of the “paucity of evidence,” the
assistant United States Attorneys in charge of the case have decided
that the charges already lodged against Nazario were not sufficient to
convince him to make a confession and returned to the grand jury in
April seeking to obtain a superseding indictment for murder and for
use of a weapon in the commission of a felony.
So far
the Grand Jury, which is scheduled to be released in July, has not
returned the enhanced charges, McDermott said Monday.
These
same assistant US Attorneys subsequently issued immunity orders to
Nelson and Weemer to try and compel them to testify against Nazario
before the Grand Jury.
__________________________________________
Nathaniel R. Helms
Defend Our Marines
30 June 2008
Note: Nat Helms is a Contributing Editor to Defend Our
Marines. He is a Vietnam veteran, former police officer, war
correspondent, and, most recently, author of
My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story (Meredith Books, 2007).
|