On Wednesday, First Lt. Andrew Grayson was found not guilty of lying to cover up evidence from Haditha and of attempting to get his DD214 separation from service papers while under investigation. Lt. Grayson was not at the Haditha firefight. The court martial panel found him not guilty of all charges. There were originally eight Haditha Marines, four enlisted and four officers, under investigation for various court martial charges. Five Marines have had charges dropped. The blotched Haditha investigation will continue with the trials of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich,accused of ordering the killings, and LtCol. Jeffrey Chessani, of failure to investigate the deaths of Iraqi civilians. In the trial of LtCol. Chessani the prosecution has been accused by the court martial panel of attempting to sandbag the case against LtCol. Chessani. The panel has warned the prosecution that their attempts to gain a twofer reeks of evidence of the “mortal enemy of military justice.”: unlawful command influence. " aka their chief witness Marine lawyer Colonel John Ewers, was permitted to attend numerous, closed-session meetings in which LtCol Chessani’s case was discussed with the Generals and other legal beagles.
