Posted on 05/01/2007 11:50:12 AM PDT by RedRover
CAMP PENDLETON -- Prosecutors are withdrawing assault charges filed last year against a Marine officer who commanded a platoon charged in the killing of an Iraqi civilian.
The two criminal charges against 2nd Lt. Nathan Phan will be withdrawn but he will be subject to a lesser, non-judicial administrative proceeding, said Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a Marine Corps spokesman. That could result in an action such as a letter in his file or some other form of minor punishment.
Prosecutors had accused Phan of choking two Iraqi detainees in the village of Hamdania, saying he placed an unloaded pistol against one's mouth and sprayed soda pop in the nose of another, telling the detainee it was acid.
The incidents took place early last year during an attempt to gather intelligence about insurgent activity in an Anbar province region northwest of Baghdad.
The case against Phan arose from actions by him and his platoon a few weeks before the April 26 slaying of a retired Iraqi policeman in the village of Hamdania. The slaying resulted in murder and related charges against eight men from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment that were under his command.
Phan was not present when the slaying took place and had no knowledge of it until it was reported by the slain man's family.
The eight men Phan led in Hamdania were charged last June with the killing; five were convicted in plea agreements. Two months after the eight were charged, the Marine Corps filed three assault charges against Phan, along with a charge of making a false official report.
During a tumultuous hearing in January to determine whether Phan should face trial, several enlisted Marines testified that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service fabricated statements implicating the 26-year-old Sacramento native in the assaults.
The hearing featured drastically conflicting testimony on the assault allegations. There was no testimony to support the charge that Phan ever filed a false official statement. In the latter charge, prosecutors contended he filed a radio report saying a detainee had been released when in fact the man was still in custody.
Following the hearing, Lt. Gen. James Mattis dismissed one of the three assault charges and the false report accusation, but he ordered Phan to face court-martial on two assault charges. Mattis is the convening authority over the case as head of Marine Corps forces in the Middle East.
Why Mattis dropped the remaining two charges was not immediately clear Tuesday.
Phan's attorneys have said they believed they would have been successful in showing he was not present when one of the alleged victims was beaten by men under his command, and that the second charge that he pointed an unloaded pistol at another detainee was not a crime.
David Sheldon, Phan's lead attorney, was in court Tuesday morning and not available. Marine prosecutors are forbidden from discussing ongoing cases.
Phan's five-day court session ended with the hearing officer, Lt. Col. William Pigott, shouting at Sheldon. The outburst came after Sheldon said he intended to appeal several of Pigott's rulings and file a complaint over the officer's conduct throughout the hearing.
The Hamdania case is separate from allegations that a different group of Camp Pendleton men murdered two dozen Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha in November 2005. Three enlisted Marines face murder charges in that incident, and four officers are charged with failing to fully report the incident.
The first court hearing in the Haditha case begins next week; one of the officers, Capt. Randy Stone, is due in court for a hearing to determine if dereliction of duties charges against him should stand.
Pigott has been assigned as the hearing officer for that proceeding.
See more on the Phan story in Wednesday's North County Times.
Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com
I’d hate to think someone pointed a pistol at someone’s head during a war ...
NCIS gets away with this because it’s tolerated by someone somewhere.
Not here.
In 1999, NCIS and the Marine Corps Criminal Investigative Division (CID) signed a memorandum of understanding calling for an integration of Marine Corps CID into NCIS, and in 2000, Congress granted NCIS civilian special agents authority to execute warrants and make arrests.
CONGRATULATIONS LT. PHAN! There is still some good in the world.
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