Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Army dismisses officer convicted in death of wounded Iraqi By MELISSA EDDY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WIESBADEN, Germany — A decorated Army captain convicted in the shooting death of a wounded Iraqi was dismissed from the military Friday, but will serve no time in prison after insisting at his court-martial that the shooting was a mercy killing. A relieved Capt. Rogelio “Roger” Maynuiet, 30, threw his arms around his attorneys, wife and parents after the military court spared him a prison sentence. Prosecutors had sought a three-year term along with the dismissal. Maynuiet could have faced 10 years in prison after being convicted Thursday of assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter. He maintained throughout the trial that he acted to end the suffering of a man he was told was beyond medical help. Maynuiet said after the sentence that he was grateful to avoid imprisonment, but that having to leave the military would be difficult. “It’s bittersweet,” he said. “I’m happy to have my life back, but I’m being forced out of my family. It’s hard to leave the Army this way.” “Still, I’m definitely happy I’m not in confinement,” he said. Maynulet was leading his 1st Armored Division company on a mission near Kufa, south of Baghdad, on May 21, 2004, when it was alerted that a car thought to be carrying a “high-level” target was headed its way. No details of the mission have been released, but it has been widely reported the company was told radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr, who led uprisings against U.S.-led forces in Iraq last year, was believed to be in the car. The company chased the car and fired at it, wounding a passenger, who fled and was later apprehended, and the driver, who was pulled bleeding from the car by Maynulet’s medic. The medic pronounced the man untreatable and Maynulet later shot him in the head. The killing was filmed by a U.S. surveillance aircraft. Prosecutors had sought the prison term and dismissal on the argument that the strength of the sentence needed to fit the charge and would send a signal to other U.S. soldiers that such behavior would not be tolerated. “You commit a serious crime, you are out of the Army. This is not what we do here,” prosecutor Maj. John Rothwell told the six member jury before they retreated to deliberate for nearly three hours. “What kind of institution does the U.S. Army become if assault with the intent to commit voluntary manslaughter is an honorable act?” Senior officers, however, had testified throughout the trial about Maynulet’s exceptional skills as a leader, soldier and officer. Col. Michael Ryan, who commanded Maynulet in Bosnia and testified for him during the trial, said that the sentence was appropriate. “I think the outcome was the proper outcome for the Army and for Roger,” Ryan said. KARIM KADIM/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Iraqi police officers search a car entering from the west side of Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday. Security was visibly heightened around the city during the third meeting of Iraq’s new National Assembly. FBI finds explosives informer home of Oklahoma City bomber Nichols By JOHN SOLOMON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The FBI is facing the possibility it made an embarrassing oversight in the Oklahoma City bombing case a decade ago after new information led agents to explosive materials hidden in Terry Nichols’ former home they had search several times before. FBI officials said the material was found Thursday night and Friday in a crawl space of the house in Herington, Kan. They believe agents failed to check that space during the numerous searches of the property during the original investigation of Nichols and Timothy McVeigh. “The information so far indicates the items have been there since prior to the Oklahoma City bombing,” Agent Gary Johnson said in a telephone interview from Oklahoma City. FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said in Kansas the materials were found in boxes, much of them wrapped in plastic, and were being sent to the FBI lab for analysis. The bureau is operating on the assumption the evidence was from the original Oklahoma plot based on information developed in recent days, he said. Agents now will be looking for any fingerprints and other clues on the evidence that might show where the explosives originated and who may have possessed them before they got into Nichols’ home. The extraordinary discovery, just three weeks from the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people, could ptove a new embarrassment to an FBI already burned by missteps in this case and the pre Sept. 11 period. Nichols, who is serving multiple life sentences on federal and state charges, hasn’t lived at the property for years. FBI officials said the information that led to the discovery indicated Nichols had buried the evidence before the attack on April 19, 1995. One of Nichols’ attorneys said Friday the discovery was either a hoax or a major failure by the FBI. “They were there often,” said, attorney Brian Hermanson, who represented Nichols in last year’s Oklahoma state murder trial that ended with Nichols’ conviction. “It’s surprising. I would think they would have done their job and found everything that was there.” “But I’m still suspicious that it could be something planted there,” Hermanson said. “The house was _____ empty for several years and if somebody wanted to put something there to incriminate Terry they had plenty of time to have done it.” Dan Defenbaugh, the retired FBI agent who ran the Oklahoma City investigation, said he was dismayed that his agency may have missed the evidence. “When you do a search warrant of that importance, you have to make sure it’s thorough,” he said. FBI agents went to the property Thursday night and then summoned a bomb squad after finding the potentially dangerous materials, Lanza said. The search ended late Friday afternoon and the evidence was being shipped to the FBI lab outside Washington. Lanza said the material was buried in the crawl space under about a foot of rock, dirt and gravel, an area that had not been searched during the original investigation. “Depending on the situation, that’s something that may not necessarily be searched, especially given the fact that there was .no information there was anything in there. And even if you searched the crawl space at that time and dug through the rock and rubble you wouldn’t find anything until you went at least a foot down,” he said. Lanza said the information that spurred the search indicated that “Nichols was responsible for hiding these devices” and “we are operating under the assumption that Terry Nichols put them there.” He declined to be more specific about the source of the information. Nichols and McVeigh, who was executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, had used blasting caps', fertilizer and fuel to make the bomb used to destroy the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. McVeigh’s trial lawyer, Stephen Jones, said Friday he knew that some materials gathered for the attack were never found by the FBI and this discovery could answer some of those questions. But he added it also could prove to be another black eye for the FBI, which was criticized for causing a delay in McVeigh’s execution after it found new documents in the case. “I think it is clearly embarrassing if it turns out to be true,” Jones said. “We’ve gone from not producing everything for the defendants to failing to recover from one of the conspirator’s homes evidence that clearly is material.” I SOLUTION!!! ft g. iv' Tr»-] r—\ ■ TRAPS Continued from page 1 marks. The two incidents created a “strained” relationship between the USC Business Department and Sodexho, USC ■ CUP Continued from page 1 watched like two races. It’s just a good environment to hang out in,” said Brent Gay, a third-year computer-science student. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the weather. “It’s like a dreary day with a Business Director Helen Ziegler said at the time,i>ut the sanitation problems were corrected, and no further reprimands have been issued. Comments on this story ? E-mail ga7nec0cknews@gwm.sc.edu bunch of wind blowing. If the wind would quit blowing, it would be all good,” he said. Gay said that although he has been invited to the Carolina Cup three times, this was his first time. “I’ll be back next year,” he said. “I’ll be here.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu ■ AWARENESS Continued from page 1 might not be wearing jeans, but we thought we could certainly have the visual of 5,000 students wearing the sticker.” The Office for Sexual Health and Violence Prevention has printed 5,000 stickers, with 3,500 attached to cards that relate the origins of Denim Day. Citron, who designed the cards, said she decided to include USC’s policy guidelines for consensual sex on the backs of cards so students know what constitutes sexual assault. “Students, both male and female, need to understand clearly what sexual consent entails in order to both abide by it and recognize when it has been violated,” Citron said. Muellner said many women do not know what defines rape, explaining the largest study ever done on sexual assault showed that 73 percent of college women who have been raped do not know that the experience they’ve had actually defines rape. “\Y/„ man A n tint rpr/vmiTo flip behaviors of rape,” Muellner said. “When we do awareness campaigns, we want to help strengthen definitions of what sexual assault is.” Muellner said increasing sexual assault awareness through this event is also important because rape occurs rampandy on college campuses. “One in four women will be raped or will have been attempted to be raped by the time they leave college — no matter who they are, no matter what they look like, no matter what behaviors they engage in,” she said. “The numbers just keep going up and up, and we want to prevent sexual assaults worn happening. In addition to recognizing Denim Day, the Office for Sexual Health and Violence Prevention will play host to its annual Clothesline Project, in which sexual violence victims or friends of victims design T-shirts representing their experiences. The T-shirts will be displayed Wednesday in front of the Russell House from 10 a.mL to 2 p.m. Citron said the project — began in 1994 — allows victims to show the public how their experiences have impacted their lives while also helping other victims come to terms with their experiences. “Many survivors go their entire lives without disclosing to anyone, oftentimes feeling embarrassed, ashamed or as though no one else will understand, so for those survivors who walk by the incredible display on Greene Street, they will see that they are not alone,” Citron said. Fourth-year psychology student Adia Daniels, who is assisting with the event, said the Clothesline Project causes students to see how sexual violence affects USC students. “It’s not just on television — it’s your roommate, your friend, your partner,” Daniels said. “It shows us that these things happen right here on this very campus.” Muellner said the primary goal of Denim Day and the Clothesline Project is to make survivors aware of services provided by the Office for Sexual Health and Violence Prevention. “We want students to know they do have a safe, confidential place where they can come to receive support,” Muellner said. Comments mthis story? E-mail gamecoekneTvi@gwm.se. edu