|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
|
September 27th, 2006 - Article 32
Hearing for Navy Corpsman Rescheduled to Oct. 19 |
|
Article 32 Hearing for Navy Corpsman
Rescheduled to Oct. 19 By Teri Figueroa North County Times Wednesday, September 27, 2006 Camp Pendleton - A pretrial
hearing for a Navy corpsman accused of joining seven Marines in the alleged
kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi man has been rescheduled for Oct. 19, Camp
Pendleton officials announced Tuesday. The request to postpone the
hearing, which had been set to begin this morning, came from the team
defending Hospitalman 3rd Class Melson Bacos, the Marines said. Military officials did not
say why they asked to delay the hearing, and Bacos' private attorney, Jeremiah
Sullivan III of San Diego, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The military's Article 32
hearing is the equivalent of a preliminary hearing in civilian courts. It is
designed for the prosecution to lay out its evidence in hopes that it will be
considered enough to take the defendant on to court-martial. The eight men, including
Bacos, have been charged with snatching Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his home in
the Iraqi village of Hamdania west of Baghdad on April 26, shooting him to
death and staging the killing scene to make him appear to have been an
insurgent. Hearings for three of Bacos'
co-defendants have taken place within the last few weeks. Marine officials announced
Monday that Lt. Gen. James Mattis has decided that those three men - Pfc.
John Jodka III, Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr. and Cpl. Marshall Magincalda -
will move on to courts-martial. The pretrial investigative
hearings for the remaining four defendants, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, Cpl.
Trent Thomas, and Lance Cpls. Tyler Jackson and Robert Pennington, are set
for the week of Oct. 16. All of the defendants
accused in the Hamdania incident are jailed in the Camp Pendleton brig where
they have been held since late May after being ordered to return to the U.S. The Hamdania killing is one
of two unrelated incidents involving Camp Pendleton Marines under scrutiny
for possible war crimes. Investigators also are looking into allegations that
a separate squad of Marines killed 24 civilians, including children, in the
Iraqi town of Haditha shortly after a roadside bomb killed a Marine on Nov.
19. No charges have been brought
in that case; none of the Marines under investigation for the Haditha
incident are jailed. External link:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/09/27/news/top_stories/1_02_039_26_06.txt |