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 Nathan Phan will be withdrawn but he will be subject to a lesser, non-judicial administrative proceeding, said Lt.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
Agreed...See my post #38.
The statements against 2nd Lt. Nathan Phan that THREE Marines said were not true; these same Marines indicated that NCIS agents had coerced and threatened and then ordered them to sign statements to the contrary; the prosecutors who browbeat them in an effort to convince them to stick with the NCIS-fabricated version of events; NCIS Special Agents who couldn’t be found to testify for the hearing.
And then there’s the Lt. Col Pigott who totally made a farce of the hearings. He’s up first with the first Haditha Marine in less than a week.
Wonder what will happen to the Marine who was arrested for testifying that the NCIS had falsified his testimony?
It is about time that someone finally got the message that we don’t want our soldiers being railroaded.
For REAL!?!?!?!!
WOW! I was depressed when I got here!!!!
Who was arrested for that? Plowman/Pigg threatened Kruse with perjury charges for challenging the NCIS on his “statement”, but I don’t remember someone getting arrested.
What in the heck was a senior officer doing shouting during the hearing? Talk about conduct unbecoming!!!
This is terrific news for Lt. Phan, he shouldn’t even get the disciplinary letter.
NCIS has just hosed our Marines. I simply am shocked at what has been revealed in these cases.
As mentioned above, JAGS are getting fed up the NCIS and reform is now inevitable.
Really looking forward to reading the whole story tomorrow. This dismissal raises a HOST of questions about the NCIS and its competency.
Wanted to be sure you saw this. Big defeat for NCIS.
Yes it does... I REALLY want to see Gen. Mattis reasons.. Could be very telling!
Think of the battleship 10 years ago that had an explosion in one of the gun turrets. They claimed that one of the sailors was GAY and may have done it to himself.
The NCIS is corrupt to the core, and to The Corps.
#2 Let’s remember the NCIS’ high points like, the battleship Iowa case -
“On 19 April 1989, an explosion ripped through the Number Two 16 inch gun turret, killing 47 crewmen. Sailors quickly flooded the #2 powder magazine, likely preventing catastrophic damage to the ship. At first, the NCIS investigators theorized that one of the dead crewman, Clayton Hartwig, had detonated an explosive device in a suicide attempt after the end of an alleged homosexual affair with another sailor. This theory was later abandoned and Hartwig cleared. The cause of the explosion, though never determined with certainty, is generally believed to have been static electricity igniting loose powder.
Testing at Dalhgren, Virginia Naval Surface Warfare Center of powder in the same lot was able to reproduce spontaneous combustion of the powder, which had been originally milled in the 1930’s and stored during a 1988 dry-docking of the Iowa in a barge at the Navy’s Yorktown, Virginia Naval Weapons Station. Gun powder gives off ether gas as it degrades; the ether is highly flammable, and could be ignited by a spark.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_%28BB-61%29#1985-2001
Abandoned only after outside pressure forced the reexamination of the particulars. In October 1991, after Congress forced the Navy to reopen the investigation and scientists at Sandia National Laboratories determined that an overram could have caused the blast, the chief of naval operations, Adm. Frank B. Kelso III, publicly apologized to the Hartwig family. He said there was no proof that Hartwig had deliberately detonated the powder bags.
Nifonging in 9...8...7
Good grief. I just can't imagine what these people are actually thinking. They are railroading our people for doing their jobs. I honestly don't know what some of the brass doing? The NCIS investigations are blatenly fouled. They need to drop all charges, charge the investigators and do a deep overhaul over that system. I hope the JAGS are on the side of justice and that the ...I can't even type what I want to call them... investigators get what is due them, and quickly.
I will continue to offer my support to our Marines and pray that they will come out on the other side.
Lt Phan is pleased with the outcome. While he may be accepting non-judicial punishment it is still his position and absolute firm belief that any and all actions he took were solely in order to accomplish the missions that he was assigned and were for no other purpose. His actions saved Marines' lives and for that he is proud
Good for Lt. Phan, I agree with him completely. Thanks for filling us in.
This was all a hoax, This is good news god bless our men and women of the military!!
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