RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A judge found two Marines in contempt of court Friday for refusing to testify against a former squad leader accused of killing unarmed detainees in Iraq, but he rejected the prosecution’s pleas to throw the men in jail immediately.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson instead ordered Sgt. Ryan Weemer and Sgt. Jermaine Nelson to return to court in 30 days to begin proceedings on the contempt charges.
The men invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination after being called to testify in the civilian trial of former Marine Jose Luis Nazario Jr. The two face military charges of their own over the Nov. 9, 2004, shootings in Fallujah.
Weemer and Nelson could have been the trial’s most important witnesses. Other Marines are scheduled to testify about events that day, but unlike Weemer and Nelson, prosecutors do not allege that Nazario ordered those witnesses to shoot detainees. The Associated Press
