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DI gets 6 months for abusing recruits

SAN DIEGO — A military jury sentenced a drill instructor Thursday to six months in the brig and a bad-conduct discharge after he was convicted Wednesday of abusing recruits, violating training rules and damaging recruits’ personal property.

Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass also received a reduction in rank to private and a forfeiture of pay. .

The six-member jury found Glass, 25, guilty of two specifications of cruelty and maltreatment, one specification of assault, two specifications of failing to obey a lawful order and three specifications of destroying personal property.

The jury’s decision came on the second day of deliberations after five days of testimony in Glass’ general court-martial, held in a second-floor courtroom near the depot’s famed parade deck.

Glass, a former military police dog handler and veteran of two combat tours in Iraq, was accused of shoving, hitting, kicking and punching many members of Platoon 2167, 2nd Recruit Training Battalion. The incidents happened over a seven-week period late last year and early this year.

When he was charged, Glass faced 225 separate counts after an investigation found 110 “factual” incidents. On the trial’s eve, both sides and the judge, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, agreed to consolidate the charges into 10 counts incorporating the gist of the earlier allegations. One count was later dismissed, and another was consolidated into the final eight charges.

Nearly two dozen recruits testified during the trial, detailing incidents of physical contact with Glass, who was the most junior DI in the four-member drill instructor team. They testified that Glass hit them with a helmet, flashlight, tent pole, towel or fist; choked several recruits; poked another in the eye; and damaged personal items, including a pair of eyeglasses.

Glass “had complete disregard for higher authority and the chain of command,” a prosecutor, 1st Lt. John Torresala, said in closing arguments Tuesday. “He punched, he hit, he slapped, he hit with objects — flashlights, tent poles, war belts, canteens.”

Glass was also accused of ordering one recruit to jump headfirst into a trash can and then pushing him farther into the container. None of the recruits were seriously injured.

Torresala argued that Glass didn’t just touch his recruits to correct them but “went so far above and beyond minimum force that there is no exception.”

Prosecutors tried to persuade the jury that it wasn’t up to Glass to determine what is or isn’t abusive, in violation of the recruit depot’s standard operating procedures governing every aspect of recruit training.

“He made a conscious decision each time to break the rule. That’s a clear pattern,” Torresala told the court. “He’s not permitted to make that decision. He does not write the order.”

But defense attorneys tried to paint a picture of a sergeant who, on his first cycle of training recruits, fulfilled his role as the so-called “fourth hat.”

“This case is about how do we train recruits,” Capt. Patrick Callahan, lead defense attorney, told the jury in closing arguments. Glass, he said, was the honor graduate of his DI School class and was highly regarded by several drill instructors who testified.

Callahan, citing what he said was a lack of witnesses and corroborating evidence, argued that prosecutors failed to prove that most of the alleged violations actually happened.

While they conceded Glass may have violated the SOP in three incidents, defense attorneys insisted on his innocence in the other allegations. Callahan noted the absence of strong evidence and testimony in most of the alleged offenses. “The vast majority of these charges, the government has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” he told the jury.

“None of these recruits reported these incidents,” Callahan added. “They weren’t reported because they were not happening.”

After the allegations surfaced, depot officials pulled Glass from the platoon and ordered a command investigation and a stand-down by Recruit Training Regiment to reinforce standard procedures and policies. Depot officials also met with some recruits’ families.

Glass’ mother, Barbara Glass, said, “I still believe he did not do anything he was not instructed to do ... by his superiors. If it’s denied, I know it’s a bald-faced lie by the Marine Corps.”

Glass’ father, Jerry Glass, tearfully criticized the Marines’ handling of the case.

“I thought the Marine Corps stood for, ‘Leave no man behind,’ ” he told reporters. “I think they had their head in the sand or they are not being honest with the public.”

Glass was one of three drill instructors charged with abusing recruits. Sgt. Robert C. Hankins and Sgt. Brian M. Wendel are facing special courts-martial on separate charges. A fourth instructor, Sgt. Joseph Villagomez, received administrative punishment.

Staff writer Gidget Fuentes contributed to this report.

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