Haditha Article 32: Capt. Randy W. Stone

Defend Our Marines ^ | May 4, 2007 | David Allender

[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

[freema]

Ping

[river rat]

I can hear the fat lady clearing her throat...

She will sing and these Article 32 hearings will lead to OFFICIALLY clearing these Marines of all serious charges.

To do otherwise is unthinkable..

THEN - an investigation of Murtha will commence.....

[StarCMC]

Thanks for the thread and the ping, RedRover.

[RedRover]

My pleasure, Star! As Semper Fi Mom noted above, this hearing will set the tone for the six others. Wish I could be in the courtroom myself. We’ll have to rely on the North County Times for news of each day’s proceedings.

[gardencatz]

This guy had no business being in combat anyway. He is a JAG type. This was just a screw up waiting to happen. Next time ensure that the officer in charge is Infantry. They are trained for that. Whoever put this guy in combat should be charged as well. No wonder things went wrong.

Every Marine's a rifleman.

Cindie

[Marine_Uncle]

"This Article 32 hearing is of the utmost importance and will probably set the tone for the other Article 32’s. Please pray that this will be a fair and unbiased hearing. God Bless Our Marines."
I second those thoughts. Let us hope General Huck's testimony clear this Marine of any wrong doing and that it will set a precedent for those hearings that yet have to come to conclusion before any court martials are considered.

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the ping. Hopefully General Huck’s testimonies shall be enough to clear this Marine of any wrong doing, and perhaps set a precedence for the other yet to be tried cases.

[brityank]

I hope their attorneys can take Jack Murtha, and anyone else responsible for this travesty successfully to court.

Per the Constitution:

'They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.'
-- Article I Section 6

I would hope that someone has obtained and kept copies of all of the seditious utterings of scum Murtha from outside of the House Floor to use in the civil case and a House Impeachment action.

[smoothsailing]

I've archived a great deal of murtha's despicable utterings, but by far the most extensive and thoroughly documented collection can be found here:

THE MURTHA FILE

[jazusamo]

Thanks, Smooth, I was just going to link The Murtha File to him. :-)

[brityank]

Good info; thanks. Hopefully once these misguided cases are cleared, someone will push Murtha into obscurity, or preferably jail.

[smoothsailing]

There is absolutely nothing approaching the quality of content anywhere on the net, to my knowledge. :-)

[jazusamo]

I was looking at The Murtha File to see if the video of Murtha and Matthews was there when murtha made the first accusation on his show and I couldn’t find it. Do you know if that video is still available? I think I’ll look for it tomorrow if you don’t know.

[Roadrunner52]

You are brilliant. I can tell you i have enough info to wipe him off the map. I have “that” information with the attorneys of Stone, Chessani and Wuterich. I have hinted after Stone’s trial that they join forces ina class action suit against Murtha and Time. I have some pretty good power points. Stay tuned folks, because with all of us, Murtha is going down. He will be lucky to avoid jail.

[Roadrunner52]

Murtha was on Tim Russert on March 22, 2006 and appeared in TIME on March 27, 2006.

Michael Moore posted an article on March 21, 2006......... I will look for the Matthews info....

[jazusamo]

I could be mistaken but I thought murtha was on a Matthews show on May 17 or 18 and made the accusations about cold blooded killers.

[brityank]

Found it on uTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llcMlB0nUHc

Six and a half minutes; several other vids there too.

[brityank]

See above.

I don’t have a way to grab a copy, hopefully someone can grab it for future use.

[jazusamo]

They referred to the May 17 episode in this video but that original May 17 video is the one I’ve tried to find with no luck so far.

[Roadrunner52]

Definitely on Russert. I don’t know about Matthews. Russert asked Murtha about the camera men in Iraq the previous week. That was about the 17th. I investigated the videographer, filmmaker and witnesses. I can’t give anything away, but treason might be in order for a few people including Murtha and Moore. No promises but Murtha will be damn lucky to avoid jail.

I will look for Murtha - Matthews. Everyone realize that Nov. 19th was the Iraqi election day, and who would be there filming to make sure no cheating? Michael Moore.