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Jose Luis Nazario Jr.

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Sergeant Jose Luis Nazario Jr. (born 1979) is the first American to be tried in a civilian court for war crimes which were allegedly committed while he was on active duty.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Nazario was charged, under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, with voluntary manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence for his role in the death of four unarmed Iraqis.[1][8][9][10] The Iraqis were killed on November 9, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq, when Nazario was leading a squad of 13 Marines on house to house searches as part of Operation Phantom Fury, during the Second Battle of Fallujah.

Jose Luis Nazario Jr.
Born1979 (age 44–45)
AllegianceUnited States
Service / branchUnited States Marine Corps
Years of service? - 2006
RankSergeant
Battles / warsSecond Battle of Fallujah

Nazario, a former Marine, was charged under the 2000 Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act[11] for the killing of unarmed Iraqi detainees in the city of Falluja.[12] His trial began on August 19, 2008.[13]

Nazario retired from the Marine Corps in 2005.[14][15] After his retirement he was to become a Police officer in his home-town of Riverside, California.

The incident became known publicly when one of Nazario's subordinates, Sergeant Ryan Weemer applied for a job with the United States Secret Service.[14] During his interview he was asked to identify the most serious crime he had participated in, and he described his role in the killing.

Nazario's attorneys told CNN in July 2007 that Nazario totally denied the charges.[14][15] Nazario was released on bail, after his arrest. But, because he was still in his probationary period with the police when he was arrested, he was dismissed. In 2010, Nazario sued the Riverside Police, to try force them to re-hire him.[16][17][18] The court ruled in favor of the Riverside Police. Nazario appealed, and, in 2013, an appeals court upheld the decision not to re-hire him.[19]

During his trial five of the thirteen subordinates in his squad testified that they were not eyewitnesses to the killings, but they heard the shots fired.[2] Two of Nazario's subordinates, Sergeant Weemer and Sergeant Jermaine Nelson, faced contempt of court charges for their refusals to testify. The contempt charges were dropped a month later.

Although he refused to testify during Nazario's trial, in September 2009, Jermaine Nelson would later apologize for his role in the killings during his own trial, and place the blame for all the killings on Nazario.[3] According to The Guardian, during Nelson's trial a tape of a confession Nelson made in 2007 was played, that offered: "a grisly account that Nazario beat detainees, killed two of them by shooting them in the forehead and ordered squad members to kill the other two."

Nazario's trial was held in his home town, Riverside, California, where he was formerly a police officer,[1] with US District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson presiding.[20] He was acquitted on August 28, 2008.[21]

Nazario's defense team included Joseph Preis, Jared N. Klein and David Foberg, lawyers from the firm Pepper Hamilton, a firm that had worked previously on behalf of Guantanamo detainees.[22][23]

After US District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips ruled in favor of Riverside in a civil suite Nazario launched Richard K. De Atley of the Press Enterprise wrote that court statements revealed that the main reason Riverside had not re-instated Nazario was not that Riverside investigators concluded Navario had in fact killed the Iraqi civilians; rather it was "troubling statements" from Federal wiretaps of Nazario's phone, and a "2008 domestic abuse court action".[24] Nazario had sued, based on the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, asking for $6 million in damages. De Atley quoted a passage from the wiretaps which stated Nazario said: "it was 'fun to ... around with people,' that he gets 'to beat somebody's ... because they're drunk,' ". De Atley noted that the court papers did not include evidence Nazario had beaten vulnerable members of the public for kicks.

The transcripts also recorded Nazario discussing how to subvert the reliability of polygraph tests with another police officer.[24] According to De Atley in a passage in the wiretap transcripts that had been deemed inadmissible at his manslaughter trial, but had been admissible at his civil suit, Nazario described "how to respond directly if asked he had murdered anyone." De Atley wrote Nazario said: "Just be like, yeah, I was in combat. And they waive all that ..." Nazario's lawyers had argued that, if the city decided not to put any weight on the murder allegations once Nazario was acquitted they should have dropped the investigation, so they would not have come across the domestic violence court action, or Nazario's statements captured in the Federal wiretaps.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Chelsea J. Carter (2008-08-28). "Jury acquits former Marine in killing of Iraqis". Fox News. Archived from the original on 2008-08-30. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
  2. ^ a b Sonja Bjelland (2008-08-22). "Marines refuse to testify against squad leader, prompting U.S. Attorney's Office to seek contempt charges". The Press-Enterprise. Retrieved 2010-04-18. The U.S. Attorney's Office is pursuing criminal contempt charges against two Marine sergeants who refused to testify against their squad leader this morning.
  3. ^ a b Elliot Spagat (2009-09-30). "Marine apologizes for killing Iraqi detainee". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2010-04-18. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson told the judge he had failed the Marines by following his squad leader's order to shoot and by ignoring his training. He said he should have left the house and asked superiors for help when he disagreed his squad leader, Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario.
  4. ^ "U.S. jury acquits ex-Marine in Iraqi killings". Reuters. 2008-08-29. Archived from the original on 2012-09-26. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
  5. ^ Nicholas Casey (2008-08-19). "Civilian Court Tries Case From the Fog of War". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2012-11-11. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  6. ^ Dan Slater (2008-08-19). "In First, Former Marine to Stand Trial in Civilian Court for War Crimes". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2012-09-28. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
  7. ^ "Marines charged in killings of Iraqis". WXOW. 2010-03-26. Retrieved 2010-04-18.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ Pauline Therese Collins (2018). Civil-Military 'Legal' Relations: Where to from Here?: The Civilian Courts and the Military in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. Brill publisher. p. 216. ISBN 9789004338258. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  9. ^ David Kennedy, ed. (2013). The Modern American Military. OUP USA. p. 263. ISBN 9780199895946. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  10. ^ Jim Frederick (2010). Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death. Crown/Archetype. p. 359. ISBN 9780307450982. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  11. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-11-19. Retrieved 2008-12-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ^ "Legally Speaking: Law and the Fog of War, Part I of II".
  13. ^ "Civil trial opens of US ex-marine". BBC News. 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
  14. ^ a b c "Marines: Claims of captive killings probed". USA Today. 2007-07-06. Retrieved 2010-04-18. The investigation was launched when Ryan Weemer, a former Marine corporal injured while fighting in Fallujah, applied for a job with the Secret Service...
  15. ^ a b "Former Marine says squad made up slayings story". CNN. 2007-08-21. Retrieved 2010-04-18. According to an affidavit from a Navy investigator, Nazario killed one prisoner and then asked his squad: 'Who else wants to kill these guys? Because I don't want to do it all myself.'
  16. ^ Sonja Bjelland; Gene Ghiotto (2008-09-02). "Veteran acquitted in landmark case wants Riverside police job back". The Press-Enterprise. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
  17. ^ "Acquitted veteran sues over police firing". United Press. 2010-03-11. Retrieved 2010-04-18. Jose Luis Nazario Jr. in his lawsuit says the city violated the U.S. Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Act by dismissing him and then not reinstating him after he was acquitted of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a dangerous weapon, The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. His lawyer, in court papers, said a supervisor told him he would be "back on the job in no time" when he went to the police department the day of his acquittal.
  18. ^ Greg Risling (2010-03-10). "Ex-Marine sues Calif. city to get back police job". Slate magazine. Retrieved 2010-04-18.[permanent dead link]
  19. ^ "RIVERSIDE: Appeals court rules for city in acquitted Marine's firing". Press Enterprise. 7 August 2013.
  20. ^ "Judge Stephen G. Larson (Former), U.S. District Court, Central District of California: Arbitrator, Mediator, Expert, Mock Trials, Special Discovery Master". FedArb. 22 April 2015.
  21. ^ "Jury Acquits Ex-Marine in Iraqis' Deaths". Washington Post. 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
  22. ^ Charles H. Carpenter (2010-03-05). "Big Law Defends Guantanamo Lawyers". Legal Times. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
  23. ^ "Troutman Pepper" (PDF).
  24. ^ a b Richard K. De Atley (2011-03-21). "Judge favors Riversides decision not to rehire Marine acquitted of killings". Press Enterprise. Archived from the original on 2014-02-15. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
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