Jury deliberates in instructor’s abuse case

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.—A military jury began deliberating Thursday whether a Marine Corps drill instructor is guilty of beating, stomping and choking new recruits, or whether accounts of his abuse against Muslim-Americans and other military hopefuls were overhyped by young troops.

The eight-man jury at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, must decide whether Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix—a brawny veteran of Iraq—was the furious center of an abusive group of drill instructors at the Parris Island, South Carolina, boot camp.

The jury of five sergeants and three officers spent more than an hour Thursday listening to an audio recording of a key witness who testified that Felix and another drill instructor forced him into an industrial clothes dryer, turned it on and pressured him under fear for his life to renounce his Muslim faith.

Felix, 34, was charged after the Marines investigated why one of his Muslim trainees at the Parris Island, South Carolina, boot camp committed suicide in March 2016. Investigators found unchecked abuse of recruits by junior drill instructors at the training depot. Felix and five other drill instructors and the training battalion’s commanding officer were charged. A court-martial for Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon is scheduled for March. Eleven others faced lesser, administrative discipline, Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Joshua Pena said.

Felix is accused of maltreating three Muslim recruits. Raheel Siddiqui, a 20-year-old PakistaniAmerican from Taylor, Michigan, committed suicide in March 2016 by jumping off a stairwell after Felix barked at and slapped him, prosecutors said. Siddiqui’s family has filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Marine Corps.

Felix also is accused of obstruction of justice for telling recruits not to cooperate with investigators after the suicide. He’s also charged with drunk and disorderly conduct and making false official statements. He pleaded not guilty.

Felix could face time in a military prison, financial penalties and a dishonorable discharge.

In 2015 and 2016, the drill instructor derided Siddiqui and two other Muslim as “terrorists,” prosecutor Lt. Col. John Norman said in his closing arguments Wednesday. Felix also ordered former trainee Lance Cpl. Ameer Bourmeche to simulate chopping off the head of a fellow Marine while reciting “God is Great” in Arabic, Norman said.

Bourmeche said he was ordered into a clothes dryer, which then was turned on as Felix demanded he renounce his Islamic faith.

Bourmeche testified that after he climbed into the dryer, Felix and another drill instructor asked him whether he was a Muslim. He twice confirmed that he was, Bourmeche testified, and twice the trainers sent him for a bruising, scorching tumble inside the dryer. After a third spin, Bourmeche said he feared for his life and renounced his creed. The drill instructors then let him out, he said.

Eyewitnesses testified Felix slugged recruits in the face with his fist and kicked others to the ground, sometimes terrorizing recruits while drunk, Norman said.

Felix was permanently removed from his duties as a drill instructor after the investigation began, Pena said.

“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.”