Prosecutors, NCIS investigator accused of ‘misconduct’ in war crimes case
According to his motion, Parlatore found the messages “illuminating” because they allegedly helped to prove that “stonewalling” prosecutors had made it a habit of turning over “sanitized reports” typed by Warpinski.
And according to Parlatore’s motion, that wasn’t the only problem with Warpinski’s handling of the investigation, which he described as “extraordinarily poor and deeply flawed.”
Parlatore’s motion accused Warpinski of fudging the timeline of the shooting, with Ferguson’s client saying the man might have been shot up to 20 minutes before he saw his body.
Instead of an old man, the alleged victim might’ve been as young as 31 years of age — but more likely in his 40s — and in the field of fire of other snipers, the motion revealed.
And although another SEAL sniper claimed Ferguson’s client told him that Gallagher fired the shot that struck a girl walking along the Tigris River in July of 2017, other evidence seemed to indicate that he never said that at all, and it remains a mystery how the other sniper came to believe the chief gunned her down.
Based on the new evidence, Parlatore’s motion called the two attempted murder charges tied to the old man and the girl “absolutely unsustainable” and urged that they be immediately dismissed or, at least, broken off from the main murder trial.
Reached in Manhattan on Wednesday, Parlatore told Navy Times that Rugh’s gag order prevented him from specifically discussing his allegations, but he urged NCIS and the Pentagon to begin probing the investigators and the prosecution team.
“This investigator is unusually incompetent in this case. Someone should look into his credentials," Parlatore said.
“If they really had good evidence against Gallagher they wouldn’t need to engage in this kind of gamesmanship. There’s no place for this in the criminal justice system, especially when they’re trying to put an innocent man in prison for the rest of his life."
Rugh has yet to issue a ruling on Parlatore’s motion.