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Murder accusation shakes Marine’s world

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — With a combat tour in Iraq behind him and his four-year, active-duty Marine Corps obligation over, then-Cpl. Ryan Weemer nursed his war wounds and stepped out to begin another chapter in his life.

In his transition to being a civilian, he signed up for college courses and scouted federal agencies for a new career. But a comment he made during a federal polygraph examination for the U.S. Secret Service in 2006 prompted a federal investigation into the alleged killing of unidentified men during the 2004 Battle of Fallujah in Iraq.

The inquest has landed the 25-year-old Weemer and a former squad mate, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, in federal custody, and it has put them and former squad leader, Jose L. Nazario, in the crosshairs of military and government prosecutors.

“This is ridiculously hard, ridiculously painful,” said Weemer’s wife, Amanda, who has been juggling a full-time job as a chiropractor in Kentucky with helping with his defense and keeping his spirits up, even as he sits in a federal detention facility in California.

“We don’t have any control over what is going on here,” she said, speaking by phone from their home. A short time later, she got her much-awaited telephone call from her husband, who is remanded to the federal lockup in San Bernardino, 90 minutes from his duty station at Camp Pendleton.

“Keeping him positive is my number-one job,” she said, her voice trailing off. “He’s everything to me.”

Life’s quick turns

The Weemers were still newlyweds — Ryan and Amanda married July 2, 2006, during a ceremony scheduled between their college courses — when their life quickly took a turn toward uncertainty.

His answers during the polygraph that summer led a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent on a yearlong inquiry into whether Weemer and others with his 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, platoon wrongfully killed detainees in the early throes of the Fallujah operations. Details of the polygraph have not yet been disclosed.

That operation began Nov. 7, 2004, and lasted more than a month. Military officials have said more than 1,000 insurgents were killed, hundreds more were detained and scores of Marines and other service members died.

The intense, close-quarters fighting, often described as the fiercest urban warfare since Vietnam, has been noteworthy in that the battle led to scores of combat awards bestowed on Marines and others for heroism, including the Navy Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor for combat bravery. Weemer himself received a Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with combat “V” for valor, and he was wounded and received the Purple Heart medal.

By summer 2007, however, allegations of murder interrupted the lives of several combat veterans.

Ryan Weemer was continuing with his college coursework when NCIS Special Agent Mark Fox took the investigation to a federal magistrate and brought it to the attention of the Corps. On Aug. 16, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Riverside, Calif., charged Nazario, who since had completed his military obligation, under U.S. federal law with manslaughter for his alleged actions in a Fallujah house Nov. 9, 2004. A federal grand jury issued an indictment Sept. 4.

Six months later, on March 5, the Corps ordered Ryan Weemer back on active duty.

So Weemer, who had three years left on his four-year Reserve commitment, left his wife in Kentucky for a job at Camp Pendleton. Two weeks later, the Corps charged him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with one count of murder and six counts of dereliction of duty for his alleged actions and handling of alleged unarmed detainees in that Fallujah house.

Weemer’s attorneys say his recall to active duty was done solely to prosecute him. They hadn’t expected, though, he would be confined, until federal prosecutors began pressing for more testimony for the grand jury in Nazario’s prosecution.

“We anticipated that he would be taken into custody,” said Christopher D. Johnson, a federal defender and former federal prosecutor from Woodland Hills, Calif. “In situations where you have allegations of contempt of court, there are not a whole lot of actions available.”

Defense attorneys are doubtful of immunity protections federal prosecutors would provide Nelson and Weemer in their own military trials, and they suspect federal prosecutors want additional testimony for a superseding murder indictment against Nazario.

Nazario pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge and will be tried beginning Aug. 19 in Riverside.

Johnson said Weemer maintains his innocence and is fighting the charges.

“He was put in a very difficult position, making very difficult decisions in a combat situation,” the attorney said.

Detained, but hearing pending

As far as the Corps knows, Ryan Weemer is supposed to appear in a military courtroom July 10 for an Article 32 investigation hearing.

But on June 12, a federal judge ruled Weemer was in contempt of court for his refusal to talk with the federal grand jury in the Nazario case. So Judge Stephen Larson ordered the Marine held indefinitely in a federal detention center in San Bernardino.

He wasn’t alone for long.

Larson on June 24 ordered Nelson held, also for refusing to talk with the grand jury. It was Nelson’s second go-around with a federal judge. In May, he spent eight days in the Los Angeles detention center after U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson found him in contempt.

Back in Kentucky, Amanda Weemer sends her husband books and writes him letters almost every day, jotting down the seemingly mundane but comforting details of life. She has been handling the couple’s bills, getting money into his jail commissary account and trying to raise money to offset the growing legal bills and expenses. She’s helping plan a fish-fry fundraising event in his Illinois hometown and a charity motorcycle ride, and maintains a Web site, http://www.defendingahero.org.

The couple gave up their rental house to save money, and Amanda Weemer moved in with her parents temporarily, at least until the legal proceedings are resolved.

Amanda Weemer tries to contain her anger about the situation and their disrupted lives.

“It was a big blow to us,” she said. “Prior to that, we were able to talk whenever we wanted and after work and text all the time, which is a big comfort for both of us, because it was like being together.”

She’s worried for her husband and what lies ahead.

“He fought. He was injured. He could have died, very easily could have died,” she said, noting gunshot wounds that shattered his right leg. “It’s not just him. It’s so many other men who have gone and fought for their country and fought for their lives ... and then they come back, and this is what happens.”

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