Judge refuses to dismiss charges against Haditha commander

NCT:

A military judge has refused to dismiss charges against the highest ranking officer accused of wrongdoing following the killing of two dozen Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha two years ago.

The judge, Col. Stephen Folsom, rejected attempts by attorneys for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani to throw out the case or order that a new pretrial investigative hearing take place to determine if the charges against him should stand.

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One of Chessani's attorneys, Brian Rooney, said Wednesday that Folsom has refused to allow a deposition be taken from U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., as part of the defense's motion to have the case dismissed on the basis the charges resulted from "undue command influence."

The judge refused the defense access to computer hard drives of commanders above Chessani containing e-mail messages about the incident. Chessani's attorneys contend those messages show that their client had fully reported what he knew and that commanders far above him, including at least two generals, had concluded no formal investigation into the civilian deaths was required.

"That was the most stunning part of the ruling," Rooney said. "We intend to file a motion asking the judge to reconsider that because the essence of the case is all about the reporting."

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"Denying us the right to take Murtha's deposition so that we could show undue command influence, as well as denial of our request for production of documents in the possession of Lt. Col. Chessani's superiors, makes it impossible for us to render this loyal Marine officer the effective assistance of counsel he deserves," Thompson said in a written statement. "They are attempting to throw him under the bus."

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The story gives no explanation for the rulings. The ruling will undoubtedly be a basis for appeal if Chessani is convicted. The ruling on the email is inexplicable. Perhaps there was a feeling that the request was too broad if it was for a search of the entire hard drive, but a search for email is a fairly routine request these days. If Chessani sent emails, he probably has access to what was in his send file, but that does not let him know what his superior officers did with the information one they received it.

I think getting Murtha's testimony could have provided information on command influence since he has asserted he got the information he used to claim the Marines in Haditha were cold blooded murderers from a former Commandant of the Marine Corps. Murtha asserted himself into the case by using the troops in Haditha as props in his anti war campaign. These rulings deserve more explanation.

BTW, I think Chessani's counsel needs to temper his remarks about the ruling. The ruling will certainly make it more difficult to defend his client and he may have gotten information that would have helped his case, but he needs to buck up and go to trial with what he has and make the best case that he can. If he is right about the ruling, the judge has in effect given him a Mulligan should he not get his client acquitted.