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New York Times
July 30, 2004
Soldier Who Seized Car In Iraq Is Convicted Of Armed Robbery
By James Dao
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky., July 29 - A decorated Army sergeant who commandeered a sport utility vehicle from a civilian in northern Iraq last year was found guilty of armed robbery by a military jury on Thursday.
Though the defendant, Sgt. First Class James H. Williams, had faced up to 15 years in prison, <i><b>the jury sentenced him to no prison time, while reducing his rank to private and giving him a bad-conduct discharge</b></i> [emphasis added].
Sergeant Williams said he had seized the Toyota Land Cruiser on the orders of a superior officer who needed the car to replace his broken-down Humvee. Sergeant Williams asserted that the confiscation was legal under the Army's rules of engagement because it was needed for military purposes.
Prosecutors acknowledged that Sergeant Williams's platoon leader had urged him to find a vehicle. But they argued that Sergeant Williams broke the law when he and members of his engineering platoon chased the Toyota through heavy traffic in the city of Mosul and forced its driver to relinquish his car at gunpoint.
Not only did Sergeant Williams not have proper authorization to seize the car, the prosecutors said, but he also failed to leave a receipt as required under military rules, used excessive force in taking the car and lied about the incident to cover up his mistakes. The government also questioned whether the platoon had a legitimate military need for the car.
Sergeant Williams, 37, served in the Persian Gulf war of 1991 and received a Purple Heart in Iraq last year, his family said. A burly man with short-cropped red hair, he grimaced and shook his head in silent disapproval as the verdict was read.
The eight-man jury of commissioned and noncommissioned officers also found Sergeant Williams guilty of willful dereliction of duty for allowing soldiers under his command to drink beer in Iraq.
A staff sergeant in Sergeant Williams's platoon, part of the 326th Engineering Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division, pleaded guilty to related charges last year and was sentenced to a year in prison. The platoon leader, Second Lt. Bradley Pavlik, is charged with lying to cover up the incident and goes on trial next month.
The driver of the Toyota was not injured and was paid $32,000 by American authorities. At the time, the soldiers said they thought the driver was either a member of the Baath Party or an officer with the elite Republican Guard. But they later learned that he was the son of a local clan leader who was cooperating with American commanders.
In prosecuting Sergeant Williams, the military seemed intent on sending a message to both American troops and Iraqi authorities that it will not tolerate soldiers who violate the rights of Iraqi civilians, military experts said.
But Sergeant Williams's supporters, who have created a Web site to publicize his cause, assert that he is being made a scapegoat to mollify Iraqis disenchanted with the American military presence.
In his closing arguments on Thursday, Bernard Casey, a civilian lawyer representing Sergeant Williams, said the military was trying to win the "hearts and minds" of the Iraqi people by prosecuting his client.
"The government tries to make its case by putting the burden on the little guys," Mr. Casey said. "This was wartime. It was a wartime confiscation."
After the verdict, Mr. Casey said he had expected Sergeant Williams to have trouble beating the dereliction-of-duty charge, since the prosecution had produced photographs showing the sergeant drinking beer. But he said the prosecution never proved criminal intent.
"Where is the evidence that this constituted a crime?" he asked.
During the three-day court-martial trial, the defense introduced testimony that the platoon's efforts to dispose of Iraqi weapons had been seriously hampered by vehicle problems. Witnesses also said that Lieutenant Pavlik had thrown a "tantrum" on the day of the incident, April 26, 2003, because he had no car.
Sergeant Williams testified that he believed seizing the Toyota was legal. But he said Lieutenant Pavlik had ordered the platoon to say the vehicle had been found abandoned on the roadside because he feared that rules had been violated.
The prosecution argued that the soldiers knew it was wrong to seize the vehicle, but did it anyway to quiet their demanding platoon leader.
"The accused had a criminal mind every step of the way," said Capt. Howard Hoege, a prosecutor. "No mission necessitated this taking."
Sergeant Williams, a father of two who was raised in central Virginia, joined the National Guard in 1985 and became an active-duty soldier about three years later. His family said he had asked to be sent to Iraq with the 101st, giving up a comfortable recruiting post in Virginia to go to war.
Speaking to the jury before it deliberated his sentence, Sergeant Williams conceded that he had "failed" his platoon and "compromised" its mission, though he stopped short of admitting he had committed a crime.
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