Haditha Defendant Faces Complications

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published June 5, 2008 at 6:50 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Private attorneys for Marine Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the only enlisted officer still facing trial in the Haditha case, say his military attorneys may retire before the suit comes to trial. KPBS

Private attorneys for Marine Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the only enlisted officer still facing trial in the Haditha case, say his military attorneys may retire before the suit comes to trial. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Wuterich faces voluntary manslaughter charges in the case , which involves the shooting death of 24 men, women and children after a roadside bomb killed a Marine in Haditha in 2005.

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The case has no trial date set yet, as government prosecutors appeal a decision to bar tape of a CBS interview with Wuterich from the evidence.

Wuterich’s private attorney, Neal Puckett, says the case is dragging on too long, and two marine -appointed attorneys are due to retire this summer before it reaches the court room.

Wuterich: Any attorney joining the case will not have two years of listening to the witnesses and learning the facts and understanding the intricacies of the case.

Eight Marines were originally charged in the killings.

But the military prosecutors’ case has been gradually eroding, and with the acquittal of Lieutenant Andrew Grayson this week, Wuterich and Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chessani are the only Marines left to face court marshal.

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Alison St John, KPBS news

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.