Guard Pleads Guilty in Abuse Case

FT. HOOD, Texas — A former Abu Ghraib guard pleaded guilty Tuesday to battery and two other charges in the Iraqi prison abuse scandal as part of a deal with prosecutors on the eve of his trial.

Sgt. Javal S. Davis, 27, also pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty and making a false official statement to Army investigators after photographs of naked and abused prisoners became public last spring. Davis, from Roselle, N.J., will not be tried on two other charges he had faced: conspiracy and maltreating detainees.

Defense attorney Paul Bergrin said last week that Davis was working on a deal with prosecutors that would cap his possible sentence at 18 months.

Capt. Chuck Neill, a prosecution spokesman, acknowledged that a deal had been made, but would not comment on sentencing.

A jury of officers and soldiers will be selected today for sentencing. Neill said the jury’s sentence recommendation would be compared with the deal offered to Davis, and that the lesser sentence would be served.

“We intend to present a very, very aggressive sentencing trial such that this panel will give him no punishment at all,” Bergrin said, adding that Davis would likely testify during the hearing.

Davis admitted Tuesday that he had stepped on the hands and feet of some of the seven detainees brought into his section of Abu Ghraib for punishment after a November 2003 disturbance in a prison tent camp nearby. He said he also fell with full weight on top of them.

In a separate hearing Tuesday, an Army reservist in a military intelligence unit was sentenced to 10 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy and maltreating detainees.

Spc. Roman Krol, 23, of Randolph, Mass., admitted that he had poured water on the naked detainees in October 2003, had forced them to crawl around the prison, and had thrown a foam football at the prisoners while they were handcuffed on the floor.

Krol said other Abu Ghraib guards were present at the time, and that Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr., the alleged ringleader of the abuse, made the detainees do jumping jacks while naked. Graner was convicted last month for his role in the scandal.

Davis, serving with the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company, said he was upset because a female soldier had been hit in the face with a brick during the tent camp incident, and that he took out his anger on the prisoners. “It hurt me on the inside, and I just lost it,” said Davis.