| Prisoner guards scapegoated in abuse { May 9 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/3285609/detail.htmlhttp://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/3285609/detail.html
Denver Lawyers Defend Soldier Charged In Prison Abuse Pfc. Lynndie R. England Will Be Defended At No Charge
POSTED: 3:02 pm MDT May 9, 2004 UPDATED: 3:33 pm MDT May 9, 2004
DENVER -- A team of Denver-area lawyers is defending Pfc. Lynndie R. England, charged with assaulting Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison.
England is the seventh member of an Army Reserve military police unit to be charged in the prison scandal.
She also faces charges of conspiring to mistreat prisoners, committing an indecent act, and committing acts that brought a discredit upon the armed forces.
Family law attorney Rose Mary Zapor of Denver said Saturday that she is working with Giorgio Ra'Shadd, Carl McGuire and James Covino to defend England, 21, for free.
Zapor said England, of West Virginia, was being "scapegoated" for a lack of supervision by commanders and a larger problem of unqualified reservists being placed in pivotal roles in Iraq.
"They have to have someone to blame, and basically she is at the bottom of the pecking order, and so she gets the blame," Zapor told The Denver Post.
England's lawyers did not return messages from The Associated Press left at their business phones Sunday.
England, who is pregnant, has been shown in photographs smiling with a cigarette in her mouth and pointing to the genitals of nude prisoners. Another photo shows her clutching a leash attached to a nude prisoner lying on the floor.
England was to meet with her lawyers Tuesday at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
Ra'Shadd has worked on other high-profile military cases, including that of Spc. Simone Holcomb, a soldier who refused to return to Iraq so she could care for her seven children.
McGuire is a former Navy lawyer specializing in estate planning for military personnel. Covino is a former public defender.
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press.
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