Megan Ambuhl
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Megan Ambuhl, of Maryland, Virginia, is one of several United States military police officers who have been charged with torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. (See Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse) She began work as a prison guard at Abu Ghraib in October 2003. She had joined the reserves after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
While enlisted in Army Reserves, Ambuhl majored in biology at Coastal Carolina University and worked as a lab technician in LabCorp in Herndon. She lived in Centreville. In 2005 she married Charles Graner, who was serving time for his role in the Abu Ghraib scandal.
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Charges
Ambuhl was originally charged with four charges, but after her Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing, two charges were dropped, with two remaining:
- Conspiracy to maltreat subordinates and detainees; and
- Dereliction of duty for negligently failing to protect detainees from abuse and cruelty and maltreatment of detainees.
Plea bargain
Ambuhl was convicted on October 30, 2004, of dereliction of duty and sentenced to reduction in rank to private and loss of a half-month’s pay.
Additional charges were dropped in exchange for her guilty plea.
Perspectives
Megan is represented by a Washington, D.C-based civilian lawyer, Harvey J. Volzer. A Newsday article reported that Ambuhl, who has not appeared in any of the photographs that have been released, was not involved in the incidents at Abu Ghraib:
Volzer was also quoted in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article:
- That is a key part of the defense being prepared by Harvey Volzer, a lawyer for Spc. Megan Ambuhl, who England and another soldier both have said was not directly involved in the abuse. Volzer will argue Ambuhl could not have been derelict in her duty to guard prisoners because the memos show that the government believed the rough treatment to get information was justified. "We have multiple legal memoranda ... condoning what these people did," he said.
- "They don't have a case against her. They really don't ... She's not in any of the photographs you've seen or in any of the ones you haven't. She's not mentioned in any of the statements of doing anything other than being there. She's being charged because everybody on the night shift was being charged."
- Volzer said that Ambuhl hadn't been offered a plea bargain like Sivits, who pleaded guilty at a special court-martial and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a year in military prison, demotion to the rank of private and discharge from the Army for bad conduct.
- Even if they had offered Ambuhl a similar deal, Volzer said, it wouldn't have made a difference.
Sources
- Fuoco, Michael A., and Cindi Lash. "Not in abuse photos, MP says she's innocent (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04142/319647.stm)." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: 21 May 2004. 20 June 2004.
- Gordon, Craig. "Battle to defend Lynndie England (http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uspris203859633jun20,0,487775,print.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines)." Newsday: 20 June 2004. 20 June 2004
| Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse |
| Top officials |
| President George W. Bush | Vice President Dick Cheney | Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld | Alberto Gonzales |
| Civilian contractors |
| Steven Stephanowicz | Joe Ryan |
| Defense Department officials and military officers |
| Deputy Undersecretary of Intelligence Stephen Cambone | Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez | Major General Barbara Fast Major General Geoffrey Miller | Colonel Janis Karpinski | Colonel Thomas Pappas | Lieutenant General William Boykin |
| Enlisted soldiers |
| Sergeant Joseph Darby | Sergeant Javal Davis | Private First Class Lynndie England Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick | Specialist Charles Graner | Specialist Sabrina Harman | Jeremy Sivits |