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<a href="http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/fayette/s_192620.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/fayette/s_192620.html<br><br>
<br>
</a>Fayette reservist implicated in scandal<br><br>
Paul Peirce can be reached at ppeirce@tribweb.com or (724) 850-2860.
<br><br>
By Paul Peirce<br>
TRIBUNE-REVIEW<br>
Wednesday, May 5, 2004 <br><br>
<br>
A local Army reservist facing potential court-martial on charges that he
<br>
abused and humiliated Iraqi prisoners under his watch previously faced
<br>
allegations of making physical threats against his own family. <br>
Charles A. Graner Jr., 35, of 52 Johnson Ave., Uniontown, who works as a
<br>
state prison guard in civilian life, since 1997 has been accused three
<br>
times of abusing his former wife, Staci, and their two children, <br>
according to Fayette County Court records. <br><br>
Graner didn't show up for his last court appearance in March 2001, <br>
records show. <br><br>
As a result of that hearing, Fayette County Judge Ralph Warman issued a
<br>
protection from abuse order against Graner stemming from allegations
<br>
made by his wife. She claimed her husband yanked her from her daughter's
<br>
bed by her hair, dragged her into a hallway, and "banged" her
head <br>
against the floor during a domestic argument. <br><br>
In court papers, Staci M. Graner said her husband has an extensive <br>
history of abusing her and his two children. She said he threatened to
<br>
kill her and their children, installed a video camera in their home
<br>
without her knowledge and repeatedly broke into the home. <br><br>
Her lawyer, Nicholas Timperio, of Uniontown, said he was impressed at
<br>
the time with Charles Graner's apparent concern for his children.
<br><br>
"Before all of his problems, I thought he was a decent guy.
Obviously, I <br>
was wrong," Timperio said Tuesday. <br><br>
The couple divorced in 2000. There was no record that Graner violated
<br>
his PFA orders, and he was never charged with a crime. <br><br>
Yesterday, Graner's Uniontown residence appeared vacant. Neighbors said
<br>
his former wife and their children, now 11 and 13, have moved away.
<br><br>
Graner, a corporal, is among six soldiers of the 372nd Military Police
<br>
Co., based in Cumberland, Md., facing courts-martial in Iraq on criminal
<br>
charges of dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, assault and
<br>
indecent acts with another person for allegedly abusing prisoners at the
<br>
Abu Ghraib Prison near Baghdad late last year. <br><br>
He is the third western Pennsylvania soldier with the unit who is linked
<br>
to the prison scandal. Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, 24, a mechanic from <br>
Hyndman, Bedford County, also faces criminal charges. Their commander,
<br>
Capt. Donald J. Reese, of New Stanton, faces administrative discipline,
<br>
according to his wife, Sue, who said her husband was not aware of the
<br>
abuse but is being disciplined because he's an officer. <br><br>
Others charged are Lynndie England, of West Virginia; Staff Sgt. Ivan
<br>
"Chip" Frederick, of Virginia, also a prison guard in civilian
life; <br>
Sgt. Javal S. Davis, 26, of Mississippi; and Spc. Meghan M. Ambuhl and
<br>
Spc. Sabrina D. Harman, both of Maryland. <br><br>
Meanwhile, Graner's military attorney, Guy L. Womack, of Houston, Tex.,
<br>
yesterday defended his client. Womack, a retired Marine lieutenant <br>
colonel and a nationally recognized specialist in military law, said
<br>
Graner was only following orders from his superiors. <br><br>
"If the military officers involved here are only receiving letters
of <br>
reprimand, I would hope the soldiers involved, who were only following
<br>
orders, would not receive harsher punishments," Womack said.
<br><br>
Among photographs made public last week on the television show "60
<br>
Minutes II" was one showing Graner and England posing and smiling
behind <br>
a pyramid of naked Iraqi prisoners. According to published reports,
<br>
Graner and England are romantically involved, and England has been <br>
reassigned to Fort Bragg, N.C., because she is pregnant. <br><br>
"From all the information I've seen and heard on television,
including <br>
statements from Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, it's obvious these soldiers
<br>
were acting on orders from intelligence officers over there. One <br>
technique to break down prisoners being interrogated is through <br>
psychological manipulation ... by demeaning and degrading them,"
Womack <br>
said. <br><br>
"That's exactly what was going on here. The soldiers would take
these <br>
photographs at the request of their officers which would be shown later
<br>
to other prisoners by military intelligence, and they would tell these
<br>
prisoners, 'Do you want to be treated like this, too?'" <br><br>
Womack said he believes the photographs, including one of his client and
<br>
England, "were clearly staged." He added that he believes
members of the <br>
372nd were "not properly trained for this duty." <br><br>
In civilian life, Graner works as a guard at the State Correctional
<br>
Institution in Greene County, a maximum security prison that is home to
<br>
most of Pennsylvania's death row inmates. He was hired by the prison
<br>
system on May 20, 1996, after he worked six years as a prison guard at
<br>
the Fayette County prison, according to records. <br><br>
Womack said guarding POWs in Iraq "is entirely different."
<br><br>
"These military police officers were trained basically to be traffic
<br>
cops. At his civilian job, there was never any incident that indicates
<br>
he's ever done anything like this before," Womack said. "In
civilian <br>
life here, they are never subjected to anything like guarding Iraqi
<br>
prisoners. They are never subject to orders here, where they have to
<br>
follow them to break someone down." <br><br>
Fayette County Prison Warden Larry Medlock declined to release any <br>
information about Graner's employment record there. <br><br>
"Was I glad he went to the state? Yes," Medlock said.
<br><br>
Sharon D'Eletto, public information officer at SCI Greene, said she
<br>
could not discuss Graner's employment history. However, family <br>
acquaintances said he was disciplined once for refusing to work <br>
mandatory overtime, but eventually was reinstated to his job -- with
<br>
back pay -- after an arbitrator's decision. <br><br>
D'Eletto was unsure how his current status will impact his future at the
<br>
prison. <br><br>
"We're just waiting for the military's actions, but as far as I
know, <br>
when he is released from military service, he will return to this <br>
institution," D'Eletto said. <br><br>
Womack said Graner "is doing fine," although he has been
reassigned <br>
duties. <br><br>
"As far as I know, he's still marching with his command over
there," <br>
Womack said. <br><br>
Womack intends to travel to Iraq within the next month to review the
<br>
charges with U.S. military officials there and meet with Graner.
<br><br>
While Graner's attorney spoke to the Tribune-Review yesterday, Sivits'
<br>
father, Daniel, said a lawyer for his son advised him not to give <br>
interviews. The Sivits' home in Hyndman, Bedford County, was decorated
<br>
with a yellow ribbon around each of the five posts on the front patio
<br>
and two signs that read, "We Support Our Troops." <br><br>
Joe Dwire Sr., president of the Hyndman Volunteer Fire Department, said
<br>
he doesn't know how much he should believe about the accusations.
<br><br>
"They're pretty quiet," Dwire said of the Sivits' reputation in
Hyndman, <br>
a borough that is about 10 miles north of the Maryland border. "You
<br>
don't hear much out of them. They pretty much stay to themselves."
<br><br>
The criminal charges against the soldiers came after a blistering <br>
53-page military report that disclosed prisoners had been subjected to
<br>
numerous abuses at the Abu Ghraib Prison between October and December.
<br><br>
The report prepared by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba concluded a massive
<br>
failure in leadership contributed to the torture of prisoners by U.S.
<br>
soldiers. <br><br>
The report outlined instances of soldiers pouring phosphoric liquid and
<br>
cold water on prisoners, beating detainees with broom handles, <br>
sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and possibly a broomstick,
<br>
and using military work dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees.
<br><br>
Taguba found the "Army's prison command structure had confused lines
of <br>
authority, with scant oversight of subordinate units, and a wide <br>
variation in prisoner handling procedures." <br><br>
"Riots, shootings and multiple escapes were poorly documented, and
<br>
commanders rarely visited the prison to check conditions for themselves.
<br>
There was no clear oversight of the two cell blocks where military <br>
intelligence units and the CIA questioned prisoners, and where the worst
<br>
abuses occurred," the report said. <br><br>
Reese was among officers singled out for criticism in the report. Family
<br>
members of the officers in the 372nd said the unit had little support
<br>
and oversight from their commanding officers. <br><br>
Taguba recommended that Reese be relieved of his command. The report
<br>
accused Reese of "failing to properly supervise his soldiers"
and <br>
"failing to properly establish and enforce basic soldier
standards." <br><br>
Repeated attempts to reach Sue Reese yesterday to comment on Taguba's
<br>
findings were unsuccessful. <br><br>
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday the inquiry started
<br>
Jan. 13. He vowed that the military is continuing its probe. <br><br>
"The actions of the soldiers in those photographs are totally <br>
unacceptable and un-American," Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon news
<br>
conference. "Any who engaged in such actions let down their comrades
who <br>
serve honorably each day." <br><br>
A former Pennsylvania man is credited as a whistleblower in the scandal.
<br><br>
<br>
On the day the inquiry started, Army Spc. Joseph M. Darby, 24, of <br>
Cumberland, Md., and formerly from Somerset County, slipped an anonymous
<br>
note to the Army's Criminal Investigation Division that said he had seen
<br>
photographs of naked detainees. <br><br>
Darby and his wife, Bernadette, lived in Somerset County before moving
<br>
to Maryland about three years ago, according to acquaintances. Nobody
<br>
answered the door yesterday afternoon at a Cumberland address listed for
<br>
Bernadette. <br><br>
Dennis Lehman, superintendent of North Star High School in Boswell,
<br>
recalled Darby as "a hard-nosed kid, who always stood up for things
he <br>
believed in." Darby graduated from the high school in 1997.
<br><br>
Lehman was Darby's wrestling coach in the 9th grade. He said Darby left
<br>
the squad as a sophomore "to devote more time to his
education." <br><br>
As a sophomore, Darby began attending the vocational-technical school,
<br>
where he eventually met his future wife, who lived in Central City, and
<br>
he felt time constraints attending vocational school did not permit him
<br>
to continue wrestling or football, according to Lehman. <br><br>
"I remember he studied forestry at the vo-tech school, and as a
senior <br>
won an award," Lehman said. <br><br>
Lehman praised his former student. <br><br>
"We're really proud here of what he did. It's nice to see he's still
<br>
standing up for things he really believes in," he said. <br><br>
Staff writers Matt Junker and Chris Foreman contributed to this story.
<br><br>
<br>
Paul Peirce can be reached at ppeirce@tribweb.com or (724) 850-2860.
<br><br>
<br>
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