1 prosecutor disqualified in flashlight case

1 prosecutor disqualified in flashlight case
By Charlie Coon, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, December 7, 2007

A military judge on Wednesday disqualified one of two military counsels prosecuting an upcoming court-martial in which a soldier is charged with premeditated attempted murder.

Judge (Lt. Col.) Timothy Grammel ruled that Capt. Michael Watts, a Stuttgart, Germany-based trial counsel, inadvertently violated lawyer-client privilege by interviewing an expert consultant who is a member of Sgt. Stevie M. Huff’s defense team.

~snip~

Huff, a mechanic with the Stuttgart-based 554th Military Police Company, is accused of striking his former girlfriend, Angelika Gruber, three times on the head with a flashlight on May 26 in her apartment in Hauptstuhl, near Landstuhl.

According to prosecutors, Huff then took the woman’s keys and cell phone, locked her inside her apartment and fled. Neighbors called police after hearing Gruber’s screams for help. Police kicked in Gruber’s door to find the bloodied woman.

Huff was arrested two days later when he tried to enter a U.S. installation in Heidelberg.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50799