A Marine Corps drill instructor was a “bully” who abused recruits – focusing his venom on three Muslims whom he labeled “terrorists,” a military prosecutor said during his court-martial.
“He was drunk on power and sometimes Fireball whiskey, and he used that power again and again,” Lt. Col. John Norman said Wednesday in his closing arguments in the case against Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix.
“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,” he said, according to NBC News.
Defense attorney Navy Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Bridges said prosecution witnesses gave fanciful accounts about the former DI at boot camp in Parris Island, including one in which he grabbed a recruit by the throat and lifted him off the ground with one arm.
“Just because a lot of people said it, doesn’t mean it’s beyond a reasonable doubt,” the attorney said. “Not credible equals not guilty.”
A jury at Camp Lejeune, NC, begins deliberating Thursday over whether, among other charges, Felix forced recruits to choke each other, ordered them to drink chocolate milk until they vomited and loaded Muslim recruits into a commercial dryer.
One former trainee, Lance Cpl. Ameer Bourmeche, said the dryer was turned on as Felix ordered him to renounce his Islamic faith.
The most closely observed allegations involve the March 2016 suicide death of recruit Raheel Siddiqui, a Pakistani-American who jumped from the third floor of a Parris Island squad bay, according to military.com.
Felix is accused of calling Siddiqui a terrorist, slapping him and forcing him to run back and forth in the squad bay minutes shortly before his death.
Siddiqui’s family has filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Marine Corps.
He also is accused of routinely calling Muslim recruits “terrorist,” referring to a Kurdish recruit, Rekan Hawez, as “ISIS,” and forcing another Muslim to conduct a mock beheading while yelling, “Allahu Akbar!”
Investigators have found rampant abuse of recruits by junior drill instructors at the training depot.
Six drill instructors, including Felix, were charged and the training battalion’s commanding officer fired. A court-martial for Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon is scheduled for March.
Eleven others faced lesser, administrative discipline, according to Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Joshua Pena, who said Felix was permanently removed from his duties as a DI after the probe began.
The second drill instructor, Sgt. Michael Eldridge, reached a plea deal with prosecutors and testified against Felix, who faces charges of maltreatment, drunk and disorderly conduct, dereliction of duty, and violation of a general order in connection with hazing accusations.