Ohio Marine Pleads Guilty to Prisoner Abuse

WNWO.com ^ | June 5, 2004

[billorites]

Two 19-year-old Marines pleaded guilty to giving electric shocks to an Iraqi prisoner they were guarding in early April, months after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse, military officials said.

Pfc. Andrew J. Sting, of Bradner, Ohio, and Pfc. Jeremiah J. Trefney entered their pleas at a May 14 court-martial in Iraq, according to a statement by the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq. Lt. Nathan Braden, a Marine spokesman at Camp Pendleton, Calif., released the statement Thursday.

Sting and Trefney were infantrymen with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and attached to the 1st Marine Division based at Pendleton.

Sting's father, Jeff Sting, said on Thursday that his son was following orders and that he is working to get the conviction thrown out.

"I've always been proud of my service in the Marine Corps," said Sting, a sergeant in the Marines who served for five years. "This situation has left me not quite so proud."

According to the military statement, the pair and two other Marines wanted to discipline the detainee for throwing trash outside his cell and speaking loudly at the Al Mahmudiya prison, a temporary holding facility south of Baghdad. The Marines attached wires to a power convertor, which delivered 110 volts of electricity to the detainee as he returned from the bathroom, the statement said.

Sting pleaded guilty to charges of assault, cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction of duty, and conspiracy to assault. He was sentenced to a year in prison, a reduction of rank, forfeiture of pay and a bad-conduct discharge.

The family's lawyer, Thomas Sobecki, said Thursday that the Marines initially gave Sting a reprimand for what happened. It was only several weeks later, after details about the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal unfolded, that he was charged, Sobecki said.

There was no investigation and a quick plea bargain, he said. "In fact, the Marine Corps condoned what he did," he said. "Andrew was not given the opportunity to face a real trial where he would raise a defense of following a lawful order."

He said he has been in contact with the offices of Sens. George Voinovich and Mike DeWine, both Ohio Republicans, along with the Marines.

Sting's father admits that his son touched electric wires to the detainee's wrist twice, but his son told him that the detainee laughed and his son wondered whether the detainee actually was shocked.

Jeff Sting said a sergeant ordered his son to shock the detainee. When the sergeant left, his son had the ordered reconfirmed by another sergeant and a corporal.

Sting said his son is being held in a detention facility in Kuwait. He is supposed to return to Camp Lejeune.

He said his son always wanted to be a Marine. After growing up in Saginaw, Mich., with his mother, Andrew Sting came to live with Jeff Sting in Bradner, a small farming village in northwest Ohio, when he was 17. He earned a general equivalency degree after dropping out of high school and then joined the Marines last year.

"I can't emphasize how much the Marine Corps meant to him," said Sting, who talked to his son Thursday morning. "I think he's feeling betrayal on the part of the Marine Corps."

Trefney pleaded guilty to cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction of duty, false official statement, violating a lawful order, and conspiracy to commit assault. He was sentenced to eight months in prison, reduction of rank and forfeiture of all pay, and he will also receive a bad-conduct discharge.

The Marine statement did not say where Trefney is from but The Patriot-News reported Thursday that he is from Swatara Township, Pa.

The two other Marines, who were not identified, are awaiting court action.

The pleas by Trefney and Sting came five days before the highly publicized court-martial hearing for another Pennsylvanian, Army Reserve Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.

Sivits, 24, of Hyndman pleaded guilty to four counts of abuse, the first defendant to go on trial in the Abu Ghraib case. Six other reservists are charged with the abuse at Abu Ghraib, which happened between October 2003 and January 2004.

The Al Mahmudiya prison held about 300 detainees and was guarded since late March by active-duty Marines and reservists, Marine officials said.

[Pontiac]

Article published in the Toledo Blade Saturday, June 5, 2004

Marine's parents ask lawyer for help Bradner family troubled by son's court-martial By JENNIFER FEEHAN BLADE STAFF WRITER It's often said the wheels of justice move slowly, but a Wood County family said that wasn't the case when their son, a U.S. Marine, was charged with abusing an Iraqi prisoner. Pfc. Andrew J. Sting, 19, of Bradner and Pfc. Jeremiah J. Trefny, 19, of Lebanon County, Pa., pleaded guilty last month to giving electric shocks to a prisoner they were guarding after he threw trash outside his cell and spoke loudly at a prison south of Baghdad.

The incident occurred in early April. Sting was initially reprimanded by the Marines, then charged several weeks later. The court-martials were held May 14. "Even in my time in the military - and understand we're talking 20-plus years ago - court-martials did not move this fast," said Jeff Sting of Bradner. "They went over time, and they just didn't happen this fast. Maybe with technology and everything they can speed things up, but it's my opinion that there was some haste in this."

Mr. Sting has retained Toledo attorney Thomas Sobecki - a former defense attorney for the Judge Advocate General Corps - to help him get to the bottom of what happened to his son in Iraq.

The family and Mr. Sobecki plan to hold a news conference Monday to talk about the case and discuss their legal options.

Capt. Shawn Turner, a Pentagon spokesman, said military personnel who are convicted by court-martial have the right to appeal to a higher military court or, in some cases, to a higher civilian court. Calls to the 1st Marine Division based at Camp Pendleton were directed yesterday to an e-mail address for officials based in Iraq. Responses were not immediately available.

Mr. Sobecki could not be reached for comment yesterday but said in previous interviews that Sting's verbal reprimand was replaced with criminal charges about four weeks later when the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison were made public.

Sting, being held in a detention facility in Kuwait, ultimately pleaded guilty to assault, cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction of duty, and conspiracy to assault. He was sentenced to a year in prison, a reduction of rank, forfeiture of pay, and a bad-conduct discharge.

Mr. Sting, who is on medical leave from his job at a Fostoria factory, could not say whether his son planned to appeal the conviction.

The Stings have asked U.S. Sens. George Voinovich and Mike DeWine, both Ohio Republicans, for help. Spokesmen for both senators said yesterday they have requested investigative records from the Marine Corps but so far have not received those. That bothers Mr. Sting.

"If a [criminal investigation] report is not done yet and their investigation is not done yet, then why was my son court-martialed?" he asked. "It just seems to me that things happened with haste. I know I've never been a judge or anything like that, but being a parent of seven children, I know that you can't always take things at face value."

Mr. Sting said he and his family have gotten incredible support from the community, their church, and the American Legion post in Bradner to which he and his son belong. He is putting the matter in God's hands - something his son is trying to do too.

"His faith is growing stronger each day," Mr. Sting said. "He didn't used to read the Bible. Now he is reading the Bible. As he told me a couple days ago, he said, 'Dad, I'm almost in constant prayer to God about this.' He realizes the outcome of this can affect the rest of his life, and he's 19 years old."

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com

or 419-353-5972.

[Pontiac]

Unfortunate circumstances brings a Marine to his savior.

Hopefully this Marine will avoid prison.

Bradner is about 10 miles from my home town. I new it well in my youth.