Posted on 05/22/2008 5:40:30 PM PDT by RedRover
A Marine charged with murder for killing an insurgent prisoner has been jailed in California for refusing to testify at a federal Grand Jury hearing evidence of alleged murder at Fallujah, Iraq.
US District Judge Percy Anderson Wednesday ordered Sergeant Jermaine Nelson to confinement at the federal lockup in Los Angeles after giving him several opportunities to relent.
It was a beautiful thing to see, said lawyer Joseph H. Low IV, the former Marine infantryman representing Nelson. The prosecutors are attempting to break the bonds formed in combat. Nelson told them hed rather go to jail than rat out a brother Marine.
Nelson, 26, also faces charges of Unauthorized Absence from military authorities for getting jailed, authorities said.
It is coercion pure and simple, Low said. The government wants to take these guys and try and make them say what they want them to say. The government doesnt have a case so they resort to this.
Nelson was locked up for refusing to testify against his former squad leader Jose L. Nazario at a federal Grand Jury seated in Riverside, California, Low said.
The Bronx, New York native was granted testimonial immunity by federal prosecutors who are seeking to enhance voluntary manslaughter charges against Nazario. The new charges sought are murder and unlawfully using a weapon during the battle. If Nelson had cooperated, he would have been protected from further jeopardy for anything new he revealed, Low said.
Low said the uniformed Marine briefly got down on his knees and prayed in the courtroom before surrendering to US Marshals detailed to take him into custody.
Nazario is currently scheduled to stand trial on July 8 in the U.S. District Court for Central California in Riverside for two counts of voluntary manslaughter, according to his attorney Kevin B. McDermott. He is free of $50,000 bond pending his trial.
"If you win you get prosecuted, if you lose you get dead."
I just dont understand the system anymore. If you win you get prosecuted, if you lose you get dead, Nazario commented Thursday morning from his temporary home in upstate New York. Nelson didnt want to get locked up but he is UA anyway. I guess it is part of the double jeopardy system the Marine Corps has got.
Nazario was indicted by a federal Grand Jury two weeks after being arrested on August 7, 2007. He is charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act passed by Congress in 2000 to allow service members serving overseas to be prosecuted in civilian court for offenses that call for more than one year of imprisonment.
Nazario said he anticipates returning to California in late June for a pre-trial hearing scheduled for June 23 at the US District Court in Riverside.
I am worried, of course. If they raise the charge to murder my lawyer says I will get locked up pending my trial. But I guess a month or two is a jail cell isnt so bad after Iraq. I guess Nelson feels the same way, he said.
The prosecution wants Nelson to tell the Grand Jury what happened in Fallujah on November 9, 2004 when his squad encountered four enemy combatants during the opening hours of the bloody month-long battle for the ancient city.
Nelson already faces up to life in prison and a dishonorable discharge in a military court at nearby Camp Pendleton for twice confessing without legal counsel that he killed one of the insurgents after being ordered by Nazario to do so. He was free pending court-martial before being carted away by civilian authorities, the Marine Corps said.
In his confession, Nelson claimed Nazario received the order to kill the prisoners from an unknown superior over his inter-squad radio.
At the time of the alleged incident Nazario was leading the squad while its attacked insurgent strong points on the edge of Fallujah. About 45 minutes after squad member LCpl Juan E. Segura was killed by automatic weapons fire Nazarios squad discovered the four armed insurgent combatants inside a house that was being used as a fighting position.
What allegedly happened next was revealed in the affidavit Special Agent Fox filed in federal court pursuant to charging Nazario last August 7. He claimed that Nazario and the other Marines detained the insurgents during a house search.
His affidavit contends that Nazario shot two of the captured combatants in the head at close range and that he directed Nelson and Weemer to shoot two other Iraqis.
"Who else wants to kill these guys, because I don't want to do it all myself?" Nazario is quoted as telling his Marines in the Fox affidavit.
"We can't be here all day," he allegedly said. "You know what has to be done."
Nazario says the incident never happened.
Nelson, Nazario, and Sgt. Ryan Weemer, formerly of Louisville, Kentucky, have all been charged with unlawfully killing the four insurgents after capturing them during a firefight. All three men belonged to 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, the same unit embroiled in the so-called Haditha Massacre a year later.
Other Marines' fate uncertain
Weemer, 27, was recalled to active duty from the Individual Ready Reserve in March and charged with murder and dereliction of duty March 18 based on Nelsons statements to Fox.
An Article 32 evidentiary hearing is scheduled for July 10th at Camp Pendleton to decide if Weemer will go to court-martial.
Low said that Weemer has been offered the same deal as Nelson by government prosecutors and is deciding what action to take. If Weemer refuses to cooperate he could also be confined. Low said.
The judge gave Weemer until next Wednesday to decide. In the meantime the former fireteam leader in Nazarios squad remains free at Camp Pendleton, Low said.
The government claims that after Nazario received the order to kill the prisoners he told Nelson and Weemer to each shoot one of them while he killed the other two.
Nelson told Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent Mark Fox that Weemer killed one insurgent with his pistol while he finished off another with his rifle.
Nelsons rambling confession is often at odds with the statements of the other Marines who were present that day. Several of the Marines from 3rd Platoon interviewed by Fox said the incident never happened and others give conflicting accounts of what transpired.
There are no victims, physical evidence, or crime scene, evidence already revealed by the government shows. Unless the government can compel Nelson and Weemer testify against Nazario the government doesnt have a case, the defense attorneys say.
The Iraqi residents of the house where the alleged incident occurred told military investigators last spring that they were in Syria when the alleged killings occurred. They returned home to find nothing amiss, the evidence revealed.
Weemer was recalled to active duty from the reserves in March to face murder charges he inadvertently initiated more than two years. The former college student revealed the incident during a job interview for a uniformed Secret Service position in Washington, D.C. in 2006. During a polygraph examination in the spring of 2006 he told federal investigators he had witnessed the unlawful killings while serving under Nazario in Iraq.
After Weemers revelations were passed on to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service it began a 14-month investigation into the alleged killings.
A fourth Marine has reportedly "lawyered up" in anticipation of being charged with giving Nazario the fateful order over the radio and at least two other Kilo Company Marines also face possible charges, sources close to the case said.
Sgt. Weemer is being prosecuted underthe military system. Sgt Nelson’s contempt citation is in Federal District Court, but that would probably be because the military didn’t have UCMJ jurisdiction over Sgt Nelson anymore. I know that the original prosecution of Weemer is military because of the Art. 32 reference - that’s a military-only proceeding.
Given where the courts have gone in this country, I kinda like the outcome.
Have you ever had anyone save your life? Would you testify against them or go to jail for contempt?
Nazario says it never happened, others say it never happened, others have ramblings accounts, the accounts don’t jive, others make statements and then clam up, and some simply get lawyers.
This sounds like a serious case of PTSD to me.
Something hazy happens in combat. You talk about it later and add a storyline to it out of suppositions and snippets. You get macho bragging making it into a taller and taller tale. You tell the story a few times and fix it in your memory as something that might have happened this way. In retelling and rethinking, you begin to believe the story constructed you created to describe something that was so hazy in combat that you’re not sure what it was.
It’s now a pattern that loops in your brain and gets triggered by sights, sounds, smells.
And it never necessarily happened, even though it’s a story you tell and you maybe believe it sometimes, because you’ve told it and remembered it.
What is the truth in it? The truth in it is that they cleared so many houses and shot so many people while hyped in the adrenalyn that accompanies fear for your life that they have jumbled many accounts into something that never happened.
Anderson, Percy
Born 1948 in Long Beach, CA
Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, Central District of California
Nominated by George W. Bush on January 23, 2002, to a seat vacated by Kim McLane Wardlaw; Confirmed by the Senate on April 25, 2002, and received commission on May 1, 2002.
Education:
University of California, Los Angeles, A.B., 1970
University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, J.D., 1975
Professional Career:
Directing attorney, San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc., California, 1975-1978
Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, 1977-1978
Consultant, Legal Services Corporation, California, 1978-1979
Assistant U.S. attorney, Central District of California, 1979-1985
Private practice, California, 1985-2002
Race or Ethnicity: African American
Gender: Male
The 5th Amendment protects him from self incrimination. If he is asked to give evidence against someone else then the 5th doesn't apply.
The best way Nelson can help everyone is by saying, as is apparently the truth, that his memory is jumbled and he’s just not sure what’s real and what is male bonding fiction created out of fear, testosterone, braggadocio, and too many lonely nights with nothing to do but tell and retell the events of the last 1,2,3,4,5....12 months.
In short, “Judge, I think my memories are faulty and I can’t separate the real ones from the made up ones.”
LOLOLOL! I'm a Palm Treo guy myself!
And I repeat: It’s a beautiful thing to read about!
And Jesus Christ is a convicted criminal...
I've seen them first hand.
The founding fathers of this country were criminals, in the eyes of the British.
Stop with the bogus prosecutions, or we the people will stop it. Period.
There are plenty of real crimes to prosecute.
/johnny
As well as psychiatrists, doctors, rabbis, and others whom the court decides gained privileged knowledge that could reasonably be expected to be kept confidential. I submit that brothers-in-arms who depend on each other in life-and-death situations on the battlefield deserve the same consideration.
“He is charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act passed by Congress in 2000 to allow service members serving overseas to be prosecuted in civilian court for offenses that call for more than one year of imprisonment.”
In a civilian court, any prospective juror with the experience or training necessary to understand the situation of a soldier in in combat will probably be dismissed as being prejudicial. With the state of our judiciary, such politically charged cases as this will probably be steered to an activist judge, and there will be the usual carefully selected stupid jury. So now, thanks to the permanent imitation Nuremburg tribunal created by the ridiculous “Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act”, we can look forward to trial lawyers scouring South Asia for “victims” and “war crimes”, targeting whatever soldiers get in the way. The only satisfactory outcome is to repeal this stupid act and get back to the UCMJ. Until then lets hope and pray for lots of luck for guys like Nazario and Nelson.
McDermott pointed out that a comment made by a combat veteran self-medicating himself with alcohol at a bar 15 to 20 years from now ... ends up in federal court.
>>Nelson told them hed rather go to jail than rat out a brother Marine.
Well, he got his wish.
If subpoenaed to give testimony in a trial then you don’t have a choice. If you refuse then that’s contempt and you go to jail for as long as the judge wants to keep you there. It makes no difference if it’s a gangland thug or a Marine NCO.<<
Then the system is F’ed up. Tear it down and start all over - this time without lawyers & judges. Common sense will suffice.
If you ain’t been in combat, you have no idea what it is like. What we have here is another assault on American values. Take the strongest and judge it to death.
My hats off to these Marines. There DI’s taught them well.
Semper fi
I believe that this Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act was setup for civilian employees who were working in active combat zones along side of military personnel.
Please tell me why the UCMJ isn't enough? Or is it that this Act has been twisted from its origination in 1999 to now DEMAND that the military become double jeopardy targets?
Who's common sense?
It’s scary because I know that story-telling gets done and not intentionally. It just sort of builds over time and retelling.
Take the football ranger hero, Pat Tillman. Go here for a story that is so common in that the storyline had to be rebuilt any number of times.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/25/MNGD7ETMNM1.DTL
How many of us believe that fellow Rangers intentionally killed Tillman? I hope none.
Therefore, the Rangers who had been firing at enemies thought Tillman was an enemy. Their initial report would have been, based on assumptions, that he’d been killed in contact with the enemy. There are now so many stories and retelling of stories that it’s really hard to determine what exactly happened.
The point is this: what story do the Rangers involved that day tell? How many stories do they tell?
There’s also the Marine SOC unit that has been charged with killing civilians and not killing civilians. See here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1805834/posts
What do they tell? What is the real truth?
Here’s the truth — If we’re at different points of an intersection, and 4 of us see the very same accident, we’re going to tell something different simply because we all had a different angle on it. If you put us together, we’re going to compare notes and gradually develop a storyline that tries to take all the different perspectives into account. And, so, in the end, the final storyline is different than the initial reports and none of them are able to be called, “what really happened.”
Nazario and crew were in combat. Enemies were in houses. Lots of different jumbled scenarios. Enemies were killed.
MOST TELLING of all to me is that the owners of the house came home and found nothing amiss. That doesn’t seem to indicate that the house was later blown up by artillery or bombs, does it? Why didn’t they report dried blood all over the place? You don’t shoot 4 people in the head and then, in the middle of a firefight for your lives, clean it up and carry out the bodies. If Marine mortuary folks later cleaned bodies out of houses, why is there no report of that area with 4 bodies removed?
“If you win you get prosecuted, if you lose you get dead.”
Nazario is right on.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.