Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-drill16nov16,0,5264735.story?coll=la-home-center
Ex-drill instructor gets six months
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The Marine sergeant was convicted of abusing recruits during boot camp. A military jury rules that he should be reduced in rank, given time in the brig and drummed out of the Corps.
SAN DIEGO - Sgt. Jerrold Glass, a Marine Corps drill instructor convicted Wednesday of eight counts related to the abuse of recruits, today had his rank reduced to private, received a bad-conduct discharge and was sentenced to six months in the brig.
His parents were in tears, and eight Marine military police who were there to support Glass stood by him, some hugging him.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of two years in military jail.
"If you come back with a light sentence it will appear you are endorsing this kind of conduct," Capt. Brent Stricker, one of the prosecutors, told jurors this morning. The case is the biggest of its kind in decades at the Marine boot camp here.
The same military jury that convicted Glass handed his sentence.
His attorneys had urged the jury to give a lighter sentence -- 30 days restricted to base and not being discharged. "There's a way to deal with Sgt. Glass without throwing him out of the Marine Corps," defense attorney Greg Jensen said this morning. "....It's not time to quit on this Marine."
The verdict and the sentence will be reviewed by Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, who has the power to reduce them but not to increase them.
Glass, 25, who was charged with kicking, punching, slapping and ridiculing the young men, could have faced 9 1/2 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.
Jurors on Wednesday indicated that they did not believe dozens of specific allegations in which the only witnesses were the accusers. In a four-day trial, nearly two dozen former recruits testified that Glass abused them for minor mistakes during training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and at Camp Pendleton.
Shortly after the sentencing today, Glass' parents spoke to reporters, stressing their contention all along that their son had only been following orders.
"If the Marine Corps wants to tell the public this doesn't go on every day, they either have their head in the sand or they're not being honest with the American public ... ," said Jerry Glass, a retired sheriff's deputy from Arizona. "My son is my hero, he'll always be my hero."
Said Glass' mother, Barbara: "I'm numb. I still believe in my son 100%. I still believe he didn't do anything he wasn't instructed to do."
Only one recruit actually came forward to report Glass' behavior, although many were ordered to testify for the prosecution. Having to do so clearly created conflicted feelings in some. Marine Pfc. Christopher Longo, who testified during the four-day trial that Glass smacked him in the jaw and made him drink so much water that he vomited, was at the sentencing to show support for his former drill instructor.
"Sgt. Glass is a good DI. He just lost his head," Longo said today. "Everybody makes mistakes. He doesn't deserve this."
A conviction of this scope is rare. In the last three years, the recruit depot, which has nearly 500 drill instructors, has seen 44 drill instructors charged with misconduct toward recruits. Of those 44, only two before Glass went to court-martial; others were punished or admonished through an administrative process.
Glass was convicted on two counts of violating orders, two counts of cruelty and maltreatment, three counts of destroying the recruits'
Glass spent two tours in Iraq as a dog handler before attending drill instructor school, from which he graduated with honors. The abuses occurred during his first two months as a drill instructor, and they came to light only after he beat a 19-year-old over the head with a tent pole because the recruit could not remember the combination to his foot locker.
Of four drill instructors assigned to the 40-man platoon, Glass was the least experienced and the so-called "kill hat," Marine slang for the one assigned to mete out punishment. All four were relieved of duty when the abuse allegations surfaced.
The two most experienced face criminal charges, and the "third hat" was reduced from sergeant to corporal and is no longer a drill instructor. Two officers and two noncommissioned officers with supervisory responsibility for the four drill instructors were relieved of duty and reassigned.
Glass did not testify during the trial, nor did he make a statement to the judge. The jury deliberated eight hours over two days. Votes on the counts were not disclosed, but a two-thirds vote is required for a conviction. During the trial, a dog handler who served with Glass testified that he had followed the cardinal rule of dog handling: Never hit a dog.
Marine rules prohibit drill instructors from touching recruits except in specific situations, such as when they are showing them how to march or hold a rifle.
Allegations of recruit abuse strike at the heart of the Marine Corps' boast that it runs the toughest recruit training of any military service but does so without the kind of rough, hands-on treatment that once was common. The Marine Corps revels in its history, with street names and buildings on its bases named after its heroes and battles. Soon after arriving for the 13-week training regimen, recruits are lectured about Marine history.
But the Marine Corps also lives with the legacy of one of the worst cases of recruit abuse in military history: the drowning of six recruits at Parris Island, S.C., in 1956 during a night march into a swamp led by a drill instructor who had been drinking.
tony.perry@latimes.com
His parents were in tears, and eight Marine military police who were there to support Glass stood by him, some hugging him.
click to enlarge"If you come back with a light sentence it will appear you are endorsing this kind of conduct," Capt. Brent Stricker, one of the prosecutors, told jurors this morning. The case is the biggest of its kind in decades at the Marine boot camp here.
The same military jury that convicted Glass handed his sentence.
His attorneys had urged the jury to give a lighter sentence -- 30 days restricted to base and not being discharged. "There's a way to deal with Sgt. Glass without throwing him out of the Marine Corps," defense attorney Greg Jensen said this morning. "....It's not time to quit on this Marine."
The verdict and the sentence will be reviewed by Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, who has the power to reduce them but not to increase them.
Glass, 25, who was charged with kicking, punching, slapping and ridiculing the young men, could have faced 9 1/2 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.
Jurors on Wednesday indicated that they did not believe dozens of specific allegations in which the only witnesses were the accusers. In a four-day trial, nearly two dozen former recruits testified that Glass abused them for minor mistakes during training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and at Camp Pendleton.
Shortly after the sentencing today, Glass' parents spoke to reporters, stressing their contention all along that their son had only been following orders.
"If the Marine Corps wants to tell the public this doesn't go on every day, they either have their head in the sand or they're not being honest with the American public ... ," said Jerry Glass, a retired sheriff's deputy from Arizona. "My son is my hero, he'll always be my hero."
Said Glass' mother, Barbara: "I'm numb. I still believe in my son 100%. I still believe he didn't do anything he wasn't instructed to do."
Only one recruit actually came forward to report Glass' behavior, although many were ordered to testify for the prosecution. Having to do so clearly created conflicted feelings in some. Marine Pfc. Christopher Longo, who testified during the four-day trial that Glass smacked him in the jaw and made him drink so much water that he vomited, was at the sentencing to show support for his former drill instructor.
"Sgt. Glass is a good DI. He just lost his head," Longo said today. "Everybody makes mistakes. He doesn't deserve this."
A conviction of this scope is rare. In the last three years, the recruit depot, which has nearly 500 drill instructors, has seen 44 drill instructors charged with misconduct toward recruits. Of those 44, only two before Glass went to court-martial; others were punished or admonished through an administrative process.
Glass was convicted on two counts of violating orders, two counts of cruelty and maltreatment, three counts of destroying the recruits'
Glass spent two tours in Iraq as a dog handler before attending drill instructor school, from which he graduated with honors. The abuses occurred during his first two months as a drill instructor, and they came to light only after he beat a 19-year-old over the head with a tent pole because the recruit could not remember the combination to his foot locker.
Of four drill instructors assigned to the 40-man platoon, Glass was the least experienced and the so-called "kill hat," Marine slang for the one assigned to mete out punishment. All four were relieved of duty when the abuse allegations surfaced.
The two most experienced face criminal charges, and the "third hat" was reduced from sergeant to corporal and is no longer a drill instructor. Two officers and two noncommissioned officers with supervisory responsibility for the four drill instructors were relieved of duty and reassigned.
Glass did not testify during the trial, nor did he make a statement to the judge. The jury deliberated eight hours over two days. Votes on the counts were not disclosed, but a two-thirds vote is required for a conviction. During the trial, a dog handler who served with Glass testified that he had followed the cardinal rule of dog handling: Never hit a dog.
Marine rules prohibit drill instructors from touching recruits except in specific situations, such as when they are showing them how to march or hold a rifle.
Allegations of recruit abuse strike at the heart of the Marine Corps' boast that it runs the toughest recruit training of any military service but does so without the kind of rough, hands-on treatment that once was common. The Marine Corps revels in its history, with street names and buildings on its bases named after its heroes and battles. Soon after arriving for the 13-week training regimen, recruits are lectured about Marine history.
But the Marine Corps also lives with the legacy of one of the worst cases of recruit abuse in military history: the drowning of six recruits at Parris Island, S.C., in 1956 during a night march into a swamp led by a drill instructor who had been drinking.
tony.perry@latimes.com
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