Courts-martial have been recommended for four more soldiers accused of hounding Manhattan Pvt. Danny Chen to his death, but they won’t be tried for involuntary manslaughter.
Instead, the foursome faces still serious but lesser charges that could result in prison sentences upon conviction, the military said.
Chen’s immigrant parents, who live on the Lower East Side, were expected to address the latest development in the tragic case later Tuesday.
In January, family friends cried coverup after Army investigators dropped the charge of involuntary manslaughter against one of the alleged ringleaders, Spc. Ryan Offutt.
Staff Sgt. Andrew VanBockel, Sgt. Jeffrey Hurst, Sgt. Adam Holcomb and Spc. Thomas Curtis will be prosecuted for charges including dereliction of duty, maltreatment, negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, assault, communicating a threat and violation of a general regulation, the military said Tuesday.
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3 comments:
I sincerely hope that the Army will make the decision to hold the trials in the US. I can say from first hand experience how difficult it is for a family to go through this. My son was the victim of a homicide, killed by three service members years ago. My family had to go to Japan for the trials. It is a devastating experience.
This family is going to need all of the love and support they can get from family and friends during the course of this trial. It is what will get them through it. I can't imagine why the Army would want them to have to go into a war zone to attend the trial for those accussed of bullying their son to the point of suicide. They are the victims! The Army should be doing everything in it's power to make it easier. I can think of at least a dozen cases in the Army where the crimes occurred overseas and the trials were held in the US. They do it all the time. As an onlooker, it seems as though the bullying continues. Is the Chen family being punished for speaking out about their son's death? Let's start treating victims with kindness and compassion. Isn't this unit due to return from their deployment toAlaska soon? Why not wait for their return and do the right thing? My sincere condolences to the Chen Family. I know either way you'll have the strength to get through this. Please know that there are people who care about what happened to your son.
bEFORE you and the media start automatically thinking that all this crap is fact, get the real story. These soldiers did not haze, bully nor hurt this troubled Pvt. There are so many components to this that the general public does not know yet. It was not Racial, not at all. He had no buisness there and the co's had no buisness sending him into such a dangerous COP.... This young asain man and I say that because the asian community wants to make that a point rather than this "american
" actions will serve to embaress and hurt his family when the attorneys are forced to tell them the realy truth. I am sorry OU=Yan g has put them in this situation. You're right the Chen's are victimes and so are the soldiers falsly accused and their families.. shame on the Army and politicians for turning this into a shitstorm with no merit.
Anonymous, if you have some first-hand knowledge of the situation, I wish you'd contact the media or even share it with us at noncombatdeath.org
It is the layers of lies we're told by the Military and the lack of truth that keeps families from ever getting closure.
There is a "contact me" link in several places on our website and blog.
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