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Jury seated in Fallujah trial of former Marine

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A former Secret Service agent told a federal court Tuesday that he suspected, ahead of a polygraph exam, that a Marine he was interviewing was linked in a crime during the 2004 Battle of Fallujah. That suspicion led to a Navy criminal investigation and subsequent federal charges against the Marine’s former infantry squad leader.

Special Agent Steven J. DeZeeuw said he was interviewing then-Cpl. Ryan Weemer on Oct. 3, 2006, before he could administer the polygraph examination required as part of Weemer’s application to join the Secret Service.

DeZeeuw, testifying during a pretrial motion session in the federal case against former Sgt. Jose L. Nazario Jr., said he and Weemer discussed hypothetical situations of justified actions and of criminal acts such as “shooting someone in the head” when, he said, Weemer told him, “Well, that actually happened.”

The comment, made at the service’s St. Louis field office during an interview that DeZeeuw recorded on his laptop computer, drew his attention.

“It would have been relevant because if it would have been justified, it would have been part of him performing his regular duties,” DeZeeuw said during questioning by federal prosecutor Jerry Behnke. “It would not have been wrong, then.”

DeZeeuw, currently a Federal Drug Administration investigator, said he told two supervisors who, in turn, notified Washington and forwarded the agent’s official 80-page transcript and report of the interview.

“They called headquarters with that information,” he said, adding, “It would have to be examined by officials” before Weemer’s application and any additional interviews could go any further. Weemer did not have the polygraph exam.

The next day, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service traveled to St. Louis and met with DeZeeuw, who gave the agent a copy of “an audio portion” of the interview. The original recorded interview is retained at Secret Service headquarters in Washington.

DeZeeuw, in questioning by Kevin McDermott, one of Nazario’s defense attorneys, said it wasn’t the first time he’s heard admissions of potential crime during such interviews.

“We are obligated to report all misconduct that is significant,” DeZeeuw testified.

The motions hearing came amid jury questioning and selection for Nazario’s trial before U.S. District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Riverside have charged Nazario, who has since been discharged from the Marine Corps, with voluntary manslaughter, assault with a dangerous weapon and discharging a firearm during a crime.

By day’s end, both sides had agreed to a jury of three men and nine women, with two female alternates. Opening statements will be made Thursday morning, followed by the first witnesses in a trial expected to run one week.

The charges were filed under the Military Extra-territorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 by the Justice Department and investigated by NCIS, whose lead agent in the case, Special Agent Mark Fox, joined government prosecutors in court Tuesday.

Nazario, 28, left the Marine Corps in 2005 after an eight-year career. But his fledgling career in local law enforcement ended when a federal grand jury indicted him in connection with the shooting deaths of four unknown men and he lost his job with the Riverside police department. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The incident happened Nov. 9, 2004, the opening day of the Battle of Fallujah, the U.S.-led military campaign to quash a strong insurgency in the Anbar province city. Nazario, a squad leader with the Camp Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, was moving with his platoon to clear houses and fight armed insurgents that morning in what was an intense, bloody fight to retake the city.

In one house, several Marines encountered four males, who ultimately were shot dead.

It is that incident — on a day marked by Marines’ deaths and the killings and detentions of scores of enemy fighters — that is the heart of the government’s case against Nazario. Federal prosecutors, in court papers filed ahead of the trial, allege that those men had become detainees and the Marines should have been safeguarded and handled in according to military rules and Law of War regulations.

Defense attorneys, however, have contended the deaths were legitimate and the squad was in a combat situation that morning, fighting insurgents and dodging enemy gunfire.

The spotlight isn’t just on Nazario, however. The Marine Corps has charged Weemer, along with another former squad mate, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, with murder and dereliction of duty for their roles in the incident.

Federal prosecutors are counting on the Marines’ testimony, but it’s unclear whether the two men will testify in court. They had previously ignored judges’ orders to answer the grand jury’s questions.