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More and more is appearing to show Graner as a brute with a history. I don't think his attorney will be able to make the "only following orders" defense stick and everything his fiance, PFC. England, is saying is making it worse.

Former guard has a history of complaints

"..inmates at the state prison complained that Graner mistreated them, but none of the charges was upheld in the prison grievance process or in federal court. Still, former death-row inmate Nicholas Yarris maintains that Graner abused his authority.

"Most guards are good people trying to make a living, but Charles took absolute glee in exercising power over inmates," says Yarris, who, after spending 22 years in prison on a murder conviction, was released in January after DNA evidence exonerated him.

Yarris says Graner spat in inmates' food, taunted Muslims about not eating pork, cracked jokes about homosexuals during strip searches and relished withholding privileges such as exercise.

"He was one of a handful of guards who took joy in making it hard on inmates," Yarris says. He says he never saw Graner beat an inmate, but "I did see him and other guards take people into a room, and when the (inmate) came out he'd had his ass whupped."

Prison spokeswoman Sharon D'Eletto says Yarris filed seven grievances during his time at the prison, but none involved Graner beating inmates. Privacy rules prohibit the prison from disclosing how many times inmates accused Graner of abuse. But two grievances led to lawsuits in federal court in Pittsburgh that alleged physical abuse.

In one suit, an inmate accused Graner and other guards of putting a razor blade in his food in retaliation for the inmate testifying against guards in another abuse case. The inmate, who is black, claimed that after he had received a medical exam and while he was handcuffed, Graner lifted him off his feet, slammed his head on the floor and shouted racial slurs at him.

An internal investigation at the prison cleared Graner and other guards, the inmate's lawsuit said. The suit, filed in 1999, was dismissed in 2001 because the inmate did not pursue the case after his release from prison on a burglary charge.

The other lawsuit, filed against 14 prison employees, includes one allegation against Graner: that he forced a handcuffed inmate to the floor during a search. An internal prison investigation cleared Graner. The suit, filed in 2000, was dismissed in 2002.

The fact that Graner had two lawsuits "definitely stands out," says Jere Krakoff, a prisoner-rights lawyer in Pittsburgh. "I'd say very few, if any, guards at (the Waynesburg prison) have had two federal suits filed against them.".."