By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times –
DURHAM, N.C. — A 32-year-old Army specialist pleaded guilty Monday to hazing and mistreating Pvt. Danny Chen, a 19-year-old Chinese-American who committed suicide in Afghanistan in October after weeks of harassment by fellow soldiers.
Spec. Ryan J. Offutt was sentenced by a military judge to six months in prison. He was demoted to private and will receive a dishonorable discharge for taunting Chen with ethnic slurs and pelting him with rocks and bottles. He is the second soldier sentenced in the case.
Offutt entered the guilty plea as his court-martial was scheduled to begin at Fort Bragg, N.C. A total of eight soldiers have been charged in connection with Chen’s Oct. 3 suicide, which came hours after he was forced to crawl on his belly while soldiers shouted slurs and pelted him with rocks to simulate a mortar attack.
Offutt, who said he suffered a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan, apologized for mistreating Chen. He told the court he knew hazing and harassing Chen was wrong, but he did it because soldiers he respected also were mistreating the private. At one point, prosecutors said, Offutt grabbed Chen by his combat vest and dragged him across the ground at a remote combat outpost in southern Afghanistan.
In exchange for Offutt’s guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, three counts of assault, four counts of maltreatment and two counts of violating regulations.
Late last month, Army Sgt. Adam Holcomb was found guilty of assault and maltreatment in the Chen case, but was acquitted of more serious charges of negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, communicating a threat and hazing. Holcomb, 30, was sentenced to 30 days in prison, reduced in rank and fined a month’s pay.
Prosecutors say Holcomb, Offutt and other soldiers hounded Chen into committing suicide. Holcomb’s defense lawyers portrayed Chen as a physically weak, incompetent soldier who killed himself after his parents disowned him for joining the Army — an accusation his parents denied in testimony.
Six other soldiers face courts-martial later this year.
