Topic: Hearing Halted In Marine's Case

Team Infidel

Washington Post
January 13, 2007
Pg. 4


CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A court hearing for a Marine officer charged with assaulting three Iraqi men was halted yesterday after his lawyer accused government investigators of fabricating evidence in the case.
Attorney David Sheldon, who represents 2nd Lt. Nathan P. Phan, said military investigators altered statements given by other Marines about the purported assaults to include incriminating details.
A Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent assigned to the case disputed the accusations. "We do not put false information in statements," Agent Kelly Garbo said in court.
The hearing's investigating officer, Lt. Col. William N. Pigott, said he wanted to hear from the other agents who conducted the interviews and suspended the hearing until Tuesday so they could participate.
Lt. Phan, 26, has been charged with assaulting three men in the rural Iraqi town of Hamdania last April. The government purports that Lt. Phan put an unloaded pistol in one detainee's mouth and beat or choked two others. Lt. Phan also has been charged with making a false official statement.

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