Reservist from Mass. sentenced

FORT HOOD, Texas -- An Army reservist from Massachusetts who served in a military intelligence unit in Iraq was sentenced yesterday to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and maltreating detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

Specialist Roman Krol, 23, of Randolph, admitted pouring water on the naked detainees in October 2003, forcing them to crawl around the prison, and throwing a foam football at the prisoners while they were handcuffed on the floor.

Krol said that other Abu Ghraib guards were present at the time, and that Private Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader of the abuse, made the detainees do jumping jacks while naked. Graner was convicted last month for his role in the prisoner abuse scandal.

Krol chose Colonel James Pohl, the judge in the Abu Ghraib cases, to hear his case and sentence him, rather than go through a jury trial. Pohl reduced his rank to private and gave him a bad conduct discharge.

''I want to apologize to all Americans for the embarrassment I have caused this country," Reuters quoted Krol as telling the court.

In a separate prisoner abuse case yesterday, a former Abu Ghraib guard pleaded guilty to battery and two other charges as part of a deal with prosecutors on the eve of his trial.

Sergeant Javal Davis, 27, also pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty and making a false official statement to Army investigators after photographs of naked and abused prisoners were made public last spring. Davis, from Roselle, N.J., will not be tried on two other charges he had faced: conspiracy and maltreating detainees.

Defense lawyer Paul Bergrin said last week that Davis was working on a deal with prosecutors that would cap his possible sentence at 18 months. He said the deal would not require Davis to testify against anyone else.

Captain Chuck Neill, a prosecution spokesman, acknowledged that a deal was made but would not comment on its terms.

Davis admitted to the court that he stepped on the hands and feet of some of the seven detainees brought into his section of Abu Ghraib for punishment after a November 2003 disturbance in a prison tent camp nearby. He said he also fell with full weight on top of some.

Davis said that he was upset because a female soldier had been hit in the face with a brick during the tent camp incident, and that he took out his anger on the prisoners.

''It hurt me on the inside and I just lost it," said Davis.