Marine Guard Testifies in Prisoner Abuse Trial

A Marine sergeant karate-kicked an overweight 52-year-old Iraqi in the chest out of anger and frustration when the handcuffed and hooded prisoner failed to follow orders, a fellow guard at the same detention facility testified Wednesday.

The prisoner was found dead the day after the incident.

“We were angry at being there [in Iraq]; we were angry about a lot of things,” said Pfc. William Roy, who was given immunity for his testimony against fellow reservist Sgt. Gary Pittman, 40.

In somber tones, Roy testified that he and Pittman had hit Nagem Sadoon Hatab when the Iraqi balked at commands to get off the ground and stand in the middle of a holding cell to await interrogation.

“Suddenly, I saw a foot strike him in the chest, and he fell on his back,” Roy told a court-martial jury of nine officers hearing evidence against Pittman, charged with dereliction of duty and assaulting prisoners at the Camp Whitehorse detention facility outside Nasiriyah.

Earlier, Pittman had struck Hatab with a quick backhand to the chest, Roy testified.

“He stumbled or fell on his back,” Roy said. “As I was getting him back to his feet, he said, ‘Why? Why?’ He was kind of crying and saying, ‘My children, my children.’ He said he had 11 children.

“I said: ‘What about the people in the ambush and their children?’ ”

Hatab had been captured in June 2003 as a suspect in the ambush of the Army convoy in which 11 soldiers were killed and Pvt. Jessica Lynch was taken prisoner.

Roy said that he became alarmed after Pittman kicked Hatab, and that he suggested they leave him alone. “I told Pittman: ‘Let’s get out of here before we really hurt this guy,’ ” he said.

Several hours later, when Roy saw Hatab again, he was lying in the dirt, moaning and holding his side, according to Roy’s testimony.

Early the next day, Hatab was found dead in an outdoor holding area, naked and curled in a fetal position. An autopsy found multiple bruises, six broken ribs and a broken bone in his throat.

In a deal with prosecutors, Roy avoided court-martial but was demoted from lance corporal. At an administrative hearing, he pleaded guilty to not reporting to his superiors that he and Pittman had hit Hatab and that Pittman had kicked him.

Roy and Pittman had been assigned to act as guards because of their background as civilian guards.

Roy is a correctional guard for a sheriff’s department in upstate New York; Pittman is a guard at a federal prison in Brooklyn.

Roy, 35, a muscular 6-footer with a bull neck and tattoos, said that after seeing Hatab moaning and holding his side, he asked Pittman to call the medics. Pittman refused, he said.

Roy’s testimony is set to continue today with a cross-examination by Pittman’s civilian and Marine attorneys and questions from jurors.

In opening statements Tuesday, Pittman’s Marine attorney, Capt. Anders Folk, suggested to jurors that Roy changed his version of what happened at Camp Whitehorse to avoid a court-martial.

Defense attorneys have portrayed prisoners held at Camp Whitehorse as a volatile and dangerous lot. They described them as surly and uncooperative. Guards were instructed to whack prisoners on their legs or arms when they did not comply with orders to stand or be quiet.

But prosecutors assert that guards, particularly Pittman, became extreme in their use of force and began violating the rules they had learned during lectures by officers at Camp Lejeune, N.C., about providing humane treatment of prisoners under the Geneva Convention.

Still, in a victory for the defense, the judge, Col. Robert Chester, agreed to warn jurors that an incident in which a barely conscious Hatab was dragged 40 feet by his head and neck could not be held against Pittman.

An autopsy done by an Army pathologist suggested that Hatab suffocated from the broken bone in his neck.

Defense attorneys said that references to the dragging incident could keep Pittman from receiving a fair trial. Pittman was off duty when the dragging incident occurred.

In fact, defense attorneys say, the broken bone may have been inflicted when Roy grabbed Hatab by the neck.

“The dragging incident really has nothing to do with Sgt. Pittman,” said defense attorney John Tranberg. He suggested that the warning to jurors not to blame Pittman for the dragging “may be one of those instructions that has to be given and re-given during the course of the trial.”

Before Roy’s testimony, Maj. Leon Francis, the lead prosecutor, had grilled Staff Sgt. Fredy Tellocastillo, the top enlisted man at the detention facility, about the dragging incident. He demanded to know why Marines did not take time to find a stretcher to prevent injury to Hatab.

“If you were a prisoner of war, would you want to be drug around by the neck and head?” Francis said, his voice taking on an icy tone.

“No, sir,” Tellocastillo answered softly.

“And you didn’t do anything to stop it?” Francis asked.

“No, sir,” Tellocastillo said.