A military judge at Camp Pendleton on Friday rejected a defense request to throw out charges against the last Marine charged in the death of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005.
Lt. Col. David Jones, the judge, had ruled Tuesday that there was a possibility that what the military calls undue command influence was present when two generals decided to bring charges against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich.
But Friday, Jones ruled that he saw no indication of actual influence on Gen. James Mattis or retired Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland. Both, he said, conducted an "unbiased assessment" of the case before sending charges. Mattis sent charges to a preliminary hearing, and Helland sent charges to a court martial after that hearing.
In making his Tuesday ruling, Jones said the prosecution had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that no undue influence existed. In his Friday ruling turning down the defense request, the judge ruled that prosecutors had "overwhelmingly" met that burden.
Wuterich’s court martial is set for September on a variety of charges, including manslaughter, aggravated assault, dereliction of duty, reckless endangerment and obstruction of justice. He remains on active duty.
The 30-year-old from Connecticut is the only Marine still facing charges.
Six other Marines have had charges dropped; one was acquitted. The enlisted Marines were accused in the killings, and the officers were charged with failing to launch a war-crimes investigation.
Faced with similar issues of alleged undue influence, another judge ruled differently, leading to the dropping of dereliction of duty charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the battalion commander.
Wuterich was the squad leader when Marines killed five Iraqis in the street and 19 others in three homes while searching for insurgents who may have been involved in detonating a roadside bomb that killed one Marine and injured two others.
The accusations of undue command influence arose because a Marine lawyer who was part of an initial investigation into the killings later sat in on meetings in which the case was discussed.
But there was no evidence the lawyer who was at the meeting to discuss other legal cases ever discussed the Haditha case at such meetings, Jones ruled.
"There was no chilling effect," Jones said. "The court must deal with facts, not conjecture."
Jones ruled prosecutors did a better job in rebutting the undue influence charges in the Wuterich case than with Chessani.
— Tony Perry at Camp Pendleton
Photo: Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich. Credit: Los Angeles Times