Family Defends Reservist in Scandal

FORT ASHBY, W.Va. —  There are two conflicting images of Pfc. Lynndie R. England.

One shows the young soldier grinning as she stands behind naked Iraqi prisoners bent over on the ground in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. She is flashing a thumbs-up sign. The Army preferred charges against her Friday for her alleged role in the spectacle.

But the other image -- the family’s image -- is of a proud young reservist who joined the Army to earn money for college, and smiles happily in a picture that hangs conspicuously in her parent’s living room.

“This is the Lynndie that we want the world to know,” said Roy Hardy, an attorney hired by the family to help counteract the devastating reaction that has been triggered by the release of photos showing Army personnel -- and England most visibly -- cavorting during apparent abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

Hardy hosted a news conference Friday with England’s sister, Jessica Klinestiver, and her best friend, Destiny Goin, at a local firehouse.

The 21-year-old with the pixie haircut is but one of several soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company based in Cumberland, Md., whose alleged abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners have sparked worldwide condemnation. But her grin -- and the fact that she is a woman appearing in photos with naked men -- has made her a notorious and enigmatic participant.

An additional photo, showing England inside Abu Ghraib holding a leash attached to the neck of a naked man on the floor began circulating Thursday.

On Friday, military authorities announced that she had been charged with one count of “conspiracy to maltreat Iraqi detainees,” three counts of assaulting Iraqi detainees on “multiple occasions,” eight counts of committing acts discrediting the armed forces, and one count of committing an indecent act.

How and why she came to be at the prison, and got involved in such behavior, is a mystery. England was trained as an administrative assistant, a “paper pusher” as her sister noted, and was never expected to work with prisoners.

The Army has sent her to Ft. Bragg, N.C., where she is performing custodial duties but isn’t being confined, Hardy said.

She is free to walk into nearby Fayetteville, he added, but he said she didn’t intend to do so for fear of reporters.

Spc. Charles Graner, from nearby Uniontown, Pa., also was charged Friday in the photo incidents. He and England met and began a relationship in Iraq, family members said, but the two have not seen each other recently. She is five months pregnant with Graner’s child.

The family has been besieged by reporters since the story broke about England’s involvement in the alleged prisoner abuse. Late Thursday night her parents, Kenneth and Terrie, fled to escape the hubbub.

“Please give them some peace,” Klinestiver said, as she, Goin and Hardy tried to put a human face on England. But it was a difficult task, given the raucous questions and deepening skepticism they encountered.

How, they were asked repeatedly, could a U.S. soldier such as England possibly smile and seem upbeat during such abusive incidents?

“Certain people in the Army have told her what to do,” Klinestiver said. “She was taught to follow orders.”

More important, the sister added, “I don’t believe these photos really show what my sister did. They were posed. She’s smiling at whoever’s behind the camera.”

Goin stressed that she believed her best friend could not possibly have participated in such degrading acts, saying she was a good-hearted, generous person who is loyal to her friends and has shown great kindness, even to strangers, over the years.

“You [reporters] don’t know why those pictures were really taken. You don’t know anything about them,” Goin said, agreeing with Klinestiver’s assertion that “they [Army officials] are using her as a scapegoat.”

Asked to provide any proof, all three participants at the news conference declined to answer. But they predicted that England would be exonerated when the full details emerged.

Family members said they’ve had limited contact with England since she returned from Iraq this year, soon after the Army began investigating the Abu Ghraib incidents. Her parents have said that England warned them to expect some trouble when she got back.

England was born in 1982 in Kentucky, but the family moved to Fort Ashby two years later.

Family members say she had a happy, if ordinary, childhood playing with her older sister and younger brother, Josh, and a pack of neighborhood friends in the quiet rural area.

England worked in a chicken processing plant after finishing high school and was briefly married to a neighborhood friend, family members said. She wanted to go to college and become a meteorologist, but needed money. Against her parents’ objections, she joined the Reserve in high school, hoping it would help finance a degree.

England began her first tour of duty in Iraq last May and returned in December, after a home leave. The news that she had become involved in a scandal “is obviously something very upsetting to us all,” Goin said.

“She couldn’t possibly do the kind of things [seen in the photos],” she said, fighting back tears. “And you can’t know everything about a photo until you know the full story.”

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Times staff writer Richard A. Serrano contributed to this report.