Marines Cited With Contempt for Refusing to Testify Against Sergeant

[WSJ_law_blog]

In a development that resembles shades of “A Few Good Men,” two Camp Pendleton Marines refused to testify on Friday in the trial of former Sgt. Jose Nazario, the first marine to stand trial in civilian court for crimes said to have occurred while he was serving in Iraq.

Here’s a report from the San Diego Union-Tribune, and here’s past LB coverage of Nazario’s trial.

According to members of Nazario’s squad, as he was leading his soldiers through three weeks of house-to-house fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, they entered a house and found unarmed men hiding under a staircase. Those men, according to testimony of some in Nazario’s squad, didn’t leave the house alive. Nazario denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.

Meanwhile, two of Nazario’s squad — Sgts. Ryan Weemer and Jermaine Nelson — await a military court-martial for allegedly helping Nazario kill the men. (Nazario’s case is going through U.S. District Court in Riverside, Calif., because he left the military.) Weemer and Nelson were put behind bars a few months ago for not testifying before a grand jury. Now, the federal judge in Nazario’s trial, Judge Stephen Larson (who’s coming off the Barbie-Bratz throw-down), found them to be in criminal contempt on Friday.

As the court session began, attorneys for Weemer and Nelson reportedly said their clients needed a letter of immunity from Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, who’s overseeing their prosecution at Camp Pendleton. But Judge Stephen Larson, who’s presiding over Nazario’s civilian trial, said a grant of immunity in federal court would be valid in any other U.S. judicial arena, including the military courts.

To that, Weemer’s lawyer, Chris Johnson, said: “He is on trial for his very life. Look at the Purple Heart on this Marine’s chest and understand what it means for him to be on the stand and refuse a direct order. He’s protecting the only thing he’s got left.”

Judge Larson said: “It’s my understanding that a Marine has something other than his life, and that’s his honor and integrity. The court is calling on his honor and integrity, and the Constitution he has sworn to uphold and defend.”

Larson set a hearing for Sept. 29 to discuss the criminal-contempt issue. He said jailing Weemer and Nelson right away wouldn’t persuade them to testify. “My suspicion is, considering what they’ve been through, there’s not a lot that these men fear,” Larson said.