Prosecution piles on more charges against Haditha officer

North County Times:

A Marine battalion commander whose troops killed 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha following a 2005 roadside bombing was in a military courtroom Wednesday, fighting two new criminal allegations that he failed to properly report the incident to military brass.

Prosecutors are pushing to add two more counts of dereliction of duty against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani for allegedly allowing an inaccurate initial report to be sent up the chain of command, and then failing to update it when details of what happened during the Nov. 19, 2005, incident became clearer.

Chessani's attorney, Robert Muise, argued in court Wednesday that, as Chessani learned more details of what happened, he provided the correct information -- by phone -- up the chain of command on the same day of the incident.

While Chessani's battalion didn't update the written report, Muise argued that military rules say phone, e-mail and other forms of communication are viable alternatives to written reports.

"There was no intention to falsely report information," Muise argued. "There was no criminal act committed."

Investigating officer Col. Christopher Conlin will make a recommendation in the coming weeks about whether Chessani should face court-martial on the two new counts.

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Whether Chessani stands trial on any of the five allegations is up to Lt. Gen. James Mattis, a commander at Camp Pendleton who is head of Marine Corps forces in the Middle East.

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Adding additional charges at this late date suggest the prosecution may not feel its case is strong enough to stand alone. It looks like the latest charges are pretty weak and lack substance. If the commanders was giving actual knowledge at the time the lack of paper notice should be irrelevant.