CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : CAMP PENDLETON : Accused Gulf War Deserter in Custody

A Marine corporal accused of failing to report to Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War and then deserting is being held in the brig at Camp Pendleton, military officials said. Cpl. Darrell Lynn Spencer, 23, who had been stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin, was arrested in Stockton on Aug. 3, said Capt. Betsy Sweatt. Marine Corps investigators will try to determine whether New Nation USA, an extremist organization to which Spencer allegedly belongs, constitutes a security threat for having played a role in his desertion, she said. “I am a citizen of New Nation USA and I have expatriated myself from the corporate United States government,” Spencer said in a tape-recorded statement released by his fiancee.