Posted on 05/04/2007 3:52:05 PM PDT by RedRover
Hearing fact sheet
The accused: Capt. Stone was the staff legal officer for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment when the incident occurred. Stone, who completed his officer training course in August 2003, was on his first tour in Iraq at the time of the Haditha incident. He is a 34-year-old Maryland native, currently assigned to legislative affairs duties. Capt. Stone is facing up to two years in prison and dismissal from the service if ordered to trial, convicted and sentenced to the maximum punishment.
Preferred Charges and Specifications:
Charge: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 92
Specification 1 (Violation of a lawful order): wrongfully failed to ensure accurate reporting and a thorough investigation into a possible, suspected, or alleged violation of the law of war by Marines from his Battalion. (Maximum punishment dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 2 years).
Specification 2 (Dereliction): negligently failed to ensure that this possible, suspected, or alleged violation of the law of war was accurately reported to higher headquarters.
Specification 3 (Dereliction): negligently failed to ensure that a thorough investigation was initiated into this possible, suspected, or alleged violation of the law of war. (Maximum punishment: [willful] Dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 6 months [through neglect or culpable inefficiency] Dismissal, forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for 3 months, and confinement for 3 months).
Investigating officer: Maj. Thomas McCann
Convening authority: Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commanding general for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Forces Central Commander for Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa.
Expected duration of the hearing: At least four days.
Unprecedented prosecution: The charges against Capt. Stone represent the first time a legal officer has been accused of a crime arising out of his handling of a battlefield report.
In Capt. Stone's defense: Lead civilian attorney, Charles Gittins, says, "General Huck did not believe there should have been an investigation, nor did the staff judge advocate for the regiment. My client was the lowest-level guy and he reported everything that he had been told. There was no requirement that he should have done more. I don't think the people who made the charging decision thought it through -- it seems like they just threw everything at a dartboard."
Expected witnesses: Maj. Gen. Richard Huck (former commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, who at the time of the incident, was in charge of troops in Haditha ), "two other Marine officers who were in Iraq when the killings took place" (according to the North County Times), Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz.
What's crucial: Maj. Gen. Huck's testimony could clear Capt. Stone. (As a side note, it's very rare for a general to testify for either side in a court case. Naturally, the investigating officer will give a great deal of weight to his testimony.)
Also at stake: Three other officers are facing charges similar to those of Capt. Stone: Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, Capt. Lucas McConnell and 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson. The result of Capt. Stone's hearing will impact the other three officers, as well as the three enlisted Marines (Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and Lance Cpls. Justin Sharratt and Stephen Tatum). All the accused are from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.
Information drawn from various articles in the North County Times
My O My, what pretty (scary looking) blue eyes! ROTFL!
That’s probably what Red’s eyes look like after being such a busy bee!
When I checked the link, I noticed I screwed up the wording of the last paragraph. I'll fix it before I post.
Pinging you to the post above.
I created a summary of the Capt. Stone hearing to get everything important in one place. It’s on my website now to work the kinks out. Then I’ll post here on FR tomorrow.
Night, all!
Looks good. A lot of work went into this summary! Great Job!
It appears the two of you have some good yucks. :-) Great graphics, freema. Blue eyes, yes, but, please, no bee outfits! Freema, you need to teach me how to do some of these graphics. Those are awesome! Doesn’t Red do some heavy lifting putting all this Hadiha stuff together?
Thank You.
You just seem to always have your antennae zeroed in on the right spot ;~)
So a decision is just on hold?
Excellent job, BTW. Excellent. I’ll be looking for the ping.
I hope it’ll serve a purpose. As the first officer hearing, it is expected to be the longest of the four. The prosecution got testimony on the record that won’t be repeated (though hopefully there will be cross-examination).
Wish we had the transcripts to work with! I hate being dependent on the media for all our information.
It’s a good summary of the witnesses and the case. There have been so many threads, it’s difficult to go back and remember the salient points from each witness in Stone’s hearing. After reviewing the list, Gittins, the atty, did a pretty good job of pulling together testimony from the various Marines who would decide if an investigation was warranted.
It’s now up as a thread.
Thank you Red Rover. And also to Everyone Else who is keeping an eye on this and supporting our Marines and their families.
New member here but have been reading for a long time and have been watching this whole thing unfold since the first day the news about it crawled along the bottom of the TV screen back in November 2005. I’m trying to get used to the site and figure out how it works.
Glad to have you here, ticked (and poed).
For starters, if you see “New posts to you” in red, that means someone’s calling you. Click on the “New posts” and you’ll see the ping. Just click on the number of the post to get to the specific comment. Or click on the title to get to the top of the thread.
If you need help figuring things out, holler.
Sometimes people are suspicious of “newbies” because we’ve had our share of trolls (meaning, fakes) and disruptors. If anyone gives you a hard time, give me or freema a shout!
Thanks for your help. I certainly understand people being suspicious of newbies. If it helps - I am a Marine Mom and I support our Marines.
I’ll say it helps. Marine moms are the best. Cheers!
You’ve always helped me! Glad to see your smiling face around these parts. <8^)
Just a heads up. Phil Brennan will be posting a new piece on NewsMax tonight that is really incredible.
It’s all based on intel collected by Capt. Jeff Dinsmore.
Among other things, the Marines were on the alert about an insurgent attack on Nov. 19. Sgt. Wuterich was apparently told that a white car would be involved.
Stay tuned!
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