A military judge who has heard days of arguments over motions in the case against a Marine officer charged criminally after U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., publicly accused service members of being murderers abruptly has changed a hearing that had been scheduled for three days to one hour.
The confirmation comes from the Thomas More Law Center, which is defending Lt. Col Jeffrey Chessani.
Officials with the law center today said Col. Steven Folson, the military judge assigned to the case, "informed counsel that the hearing in the Chessani case, originally scheduled for three days, June 16-18, has been changed to only one hour on Tuesday, June 17, 2008, at 9 a.m. PST. "Col. Folsom indicated that the only business he will address is his ruling on the defense motion to dismiss Lt. Col. Jeffery Chessani's case because of unlawful command influence," the law center said.
| That certainly suggests that he's grant the motion to dismiss. |
Folsom only recently ruled that there was evidence in the Chessani case of unlawful command influence, which is considered the "mortal enemy" of justice within the military judicial structure. The judge's conclusion was based on evidence two generals who controlled Chessani's case were influenced by Marine lawyer Col. John Ewers, one of the investigators assigned to the case. Ewers was allowed to attend at least 25 closed-session meetings in which Chessani's case was discussed.
Defense lawyers note that shifted the burden of proof to prosecutors to convince the judge that the facts presented by the defense were untrue, don't constitute unlawful command influence or would not affect the proceedings.
| More and more it's looking like the military screwed up with the investigation. And we have John Murtha to thank for it. |
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