Lonetree Pretrial Hearing Recesses

A pretrial hearing for a Marine embassy guard accused of espionage was recessed Wednesday without any decision on whether he should be bound over for court-martial and with his defense attorney asserting that the government did not have a case.

“They called three witnesses today, and not one of them said anything in terms of implicating my client,” said Michael V. Stuhff, an attorney for Sgt. Clayton J. Lonetree.

Stuhff said the three witnesses had included a State Department official, whom he identified as Kenneth Kidwell, and two Marine sergeants who had been stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, where Lonetree was arrested.

The Marine Corps refused Wednesday to discuss the lawyer’s remarks, noting that the hearing had been ordered closed.