U.S. Rep. Judy Chu said the 30-day sentence given a Hawaii-based Marine in a hazing that preceded the suicide in Afghanistan of her nephew Lance Cpl. Harry Lew "was a slap in the face to the life of a young man who only wanted to serve his country."
Lance Cpl. Jacob D. Jacoby, 21, pleaded guilty to assault in the case Monday and was sentenced to 30 days’ confinement and a reduction in pay grade to private first class, a Marine Corps official said.
Jacoby should have received a bad-conduct discharge, said Chu, a California Democrat.
Jacoby "took it upon himself with no authority and rank to assault" Lew over 3 1/2 hours with at least one other Marine on the night of April 2 at a patrol base in southern Afghanistan, Chu said Tuesday in an interview from Washington, D.C.
"Twenty minutes later it resulted in Harry’s suicide," she said. "The end result is that Jacoby gets to advance his career in the military, and Harry is dead."
At a special court-martial at the Kaneohe Bay base, Marine Capt. Jesse Schweig, representing the prosecution, asked the judge, Navy Capt. Carrie Stephens, to give Jacoby a bad-conduct discharge, the Associated Press reported.
Instead, the 30-day sentence sends the message that "hazing will continue unabated," said Chu, who attended the hearing.
"There has to be a change in (military hazing) policy," she said. "There has to be reform. There has to be actual enforcement instead of looking the other way."
Two other Hawaii Marines also face charges in the incidents leading to Lew’s death.
Lew, from Santa Clara, Calif., had fallen asleep four times on guard duty in less than two weeks, according to officials.
Out of anger and frustration, Jacoby said he kicked and punched Lew on his helmet. Lance Cpl. Carlos Orozco III, 22, is accused of ordering Lew to do push-ups and leg lifts with a sandbag, and pouring sand on Lew’s face.
At 3:43 a.m. April 3, while crouched in a fresh foxhole he had been ordered to dig, Lew used his automatic weapon to kill himself, the Marine Corps said. Stephens, the military judge, said there was no direct link between the assault and the suicide.
