FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) – The judge overseeing the military trial of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl ruled Friday that he won’t allow evidence that any service members were injured while searching for him.
The judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, wrote the risk is too great that such evidence would spur military jurors to act on emotion, rather than logic, unfairly biasing them against Bergdahl during a court martial scheduled for April 2017. Nance issued the written ruling hours after hearing oral arguments on the matter.
“The accused is not to be convicted because, while searching for him, his comrades were horrifically injured. Even (perhaps especially) hardened combat veterans of many deployments who might sit on this panel would be hard pressed not to be affected by the horrific injuries to SFC Allen, in particular,” he wrote, referring to a soldier shot in the head. “Since the danger can be avoided, I deem it should be.”
Bergdahl is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy; the latter could put him in prison for life. Bergdahl has said he walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 to alert higher-ups to what he felt were problems with his unit.
Nance said the defense has plenty of other evidence it can use to argue that Bergdahl’s actions endangered his comrades. He noted that prosecutors have “ample evidence” that numerous search operations were undertaken, and many of them brought service members in contact with enemy forces.