By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

A U.S. Army officer who approved supplies contracts in Iraq pleaded guilty Wednesday to lying about contents of a package he sent to the United States containing more than $100,000.

Maj. Charles E. Sublett told a judge Wednesday he sent almost $108,000 in sequentially numbered $100 bills and more than 17 million Iraqi dinar, then worth about $11,600, from Balad, Iraq, to his wife in Killeen, Texas.

Sublett also acknowledged he failed to file a Currency or Money Instruments Transaction Report disclosing the money was in the package, which U.S. customs law requires when sending more than $10,000 into or out of the country.

Instead, he listed the contents on the Federal Express package invoice as books, papers, a jewelry box and clothes valued at $140.

Customs officials in Memphis intercepted the package in January 2005. Sublett, 46, was indicted this past January.

In return for his guilty plea, the government agreed to dismiss a bulk cash smuggling charge. Outside court, neither Sublett nor his attorney Michael Stengel would discuss the money's origins, but there was no charge that it was stolen.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The alleged ringleader of detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is appealing to the military's highest court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington will hear arguments Monday from lawyers for Spc. Charles Graner and the government.

The Army reservist from Uniontown, Pa., is serving 10 years for stacking naked prisoners into a pyramid, knocking one of them out with a punch and ordering prisoners to perform sex acts while other soldiers took pictures in 2003.

The defense says it was wrongly denied access to then-classified documents showing that some of the detainee treatment reflected "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The government says any relevant information was already publicly available.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

A soldier acquitted of killing a mother and two of her young daughters in North Carolina about 25 years ago is now going on trial in military court after prosecutors say new DNA tests link him to the crimes.

Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis, 51, is charged with premeditated murder in the May 1985 stabbing deaths of Kathryn Eastburn and two of her daughters — 5-year-old Kara Sue and 3-year-old Erin Nicole. Opening statements in the court-martial are set for Wednesday and the death penalty trial could last up to two months, featuring 100 or more witnesses.

Hennis couldn't be tried again in civilian court so he was charged by the military, which can pursue the case because its court system is a different jurisdiction. Hennis retired from the Army in 2004 but was recalled to active duty to face charges.

Hennis, who had adopted the Eastburns' dog several days before the killings, was arrested four days after the bodies were found when a witness who reported seeing someone in the Eastburns' driveway late at night picked him out of a photo lineup.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The U.S. military's highest court says it will review the conviction of an Army reservist who prosecutors said was the ringleader of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Former Cpl. Charles Graner Jr. was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in prison for his role in the scandal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington said Tuesday it will consider whether the trial judge erred by refusing to let jurors see memos approving "enhanced interrogation tactics" for detainees.

Graner, of Uniontown, Pa., was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid and ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly knocked out a prisoner with a punch to the head.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.