The Manhattan DA’s office has fired the latest volley in its war of words with a former Marine who is charged with gun possession for checking his Indiana-registered guy at the Empire State building — announcing in a publicly filed letter that he had been summary court martialed in 2005.
Ryan Jerome had “many disciplinary problems,” and admitted smoking marijuana during nearly one month spent on “unauthorized absence,” his company commander had reported in urging Jerome’s “other than honorable” discharge “as soon as possible, according to a Marine Corps file quoted in the DA’s letter.
“This Office has a long and well documented history of valuing and honoring military service to our country,” stated the letter, written by assistant district attorney Joseph Davis to defense lawyer Mark Bederow.
“But as Mr. Jerome is well aware, his record of military service, which did not even last 11 months, was not “unblemished,” the prosecutor said, refering in quotes to a characterization made in the former Marine’s presence by a television host during an interview back in January — and left undisputed by Jerome.
When asked during a January telephone interview with the Post why he had left the Marines, Jerome had made no mention of a summary court marital or of having been part of any misconduct investigation, explaining only that he had left the corps because his unit was being disbanded due to “misconduct within the platoon” that did not involve him.
“He witnessed and he was subjected to horrific hazing,” while he was at his duty station in the Mojave Desert, Bederow said today.
“And then he and another Marine blew the whistle, and were subjected to physical threats. It became untenable for him to serve in combat” with his unit, which was about to deploy to Iraq, said Bederow.
“He never smoked marijuana; he never failed a drug test; he was advised that if he said he smoked marijuane, he could be discharged administratively” via a summary court martial.
Prosecutors have offered Jerome a no-jail, misdemeanor deal on gun possession in acknowledgement that while his gun did not have the necessary New York license, it had been legally registered out of state.
Jerome and his lawyer have asked that the case be dismissed entirely, and hundreds of Marines have rallied to his cause, lauding him as a “hero” in the process.