Feds drop contempt charges against sergeants

[unhappycamper]

Feds drop contempt charges against sergeants
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Sep 24, 2008 7:29:16 EDT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The U.S. Attorney’s office in Riverside, Calif., has asked a federal judge to dismiss contempt-of-court charges against two Marine sergeants who last month refused to testify in a manslaughter trial against their former squad leader.

Judge Stephen G. Larson had ordered Sgts. Jermaine Nelson and Ryan Weemer to appear in court Sept. 29 for a pretrial conference on the charges levied several weeks ago at the request of federal prosecutors. But in a document filed with the court Monday, prosecutors asked Larson to dismiss the hearing “in the interests of justice.”

“Both witnesses are awaiting trial for murder in their respective courts-martial cases at Camp Pendleton,” they wrote. “While the actions of the witnesses were unlawful and in direct violation of the court’s orders in this case, … the punitive effects of further contempt proceedings against these witnesses would serve little, if any, purpose in light of the severity of the charges the witnesses face in military court.”

Nelson and Weemer are the government’s only direct eyewitnesses in the shootings of four Iraqi men they and members of their squad encountered inside a Fallujah house Nov. 9, 2004. Prosecutors alleged former Sgt. Jose L. Nazario Jr. killed two of them without provocation and encouraged Nelson and Weemer to shoot the others.

A civilian jury acquitted Nazario of all charges. Nelson and Weemer, who are facing charges of murder and separate military trials in the incident, repeatedly refused to testify before a federal grand jury and in court.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/09/marine_weemer_nelson_092308/%2e