Prosecutor says Marine Corps drill instructor was a 'bully'

Source: Associated Press

Emery P. Dalesio, Associated Press
 Updated 8:30 pm, Wednesday, November 8, 2017

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — A Marine Corps drill instructor was a "bully" who punched, choked and kicked recruits, focusing his abuse on three Muslim volunteers he derided as "terrorists," a military prosecutor said at a court-martial Wednesday.

Eyewitnesses testified of seeing Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix slug recruits in the face and hit others with a rifle, terrorizing recruits sometimes while drunk, Lt. Col. John Norman said in his closing arguments.
 
"He was drunk on power and sometimes Fireball whisky, and he used that power again and again," Norman said. "He abused his power to abuse his recruits. He punched them. He kicked them. He degraded their religion, and he put them in industrial appliances."

Felix did not testify. His chief defense attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Bridges, said the dozens of prosecution witnesses gave contradictory accounts which the government unfairly fashioned into a case against the brawny drill instructor who called all recruits "terrorist." Young men told investigators fanciful stories including one in which Felix grabbed a recruit by the throat and lifted him off the ground with one arm, Bridges said.


 

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Trial-of-Marine-drill-instructor-accused-of-12341317.php