NORTH COUNTY - A lawyer for a Camp Pendleton Marine charged with murdering Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha says that confusion of that case with the prosecution of Marines in an unrelated homicide in a similarly named place is creating an unfair public image of his client.

Attorney Mark Zaid said Wednesday that the confusion comes up frequently in media reports that mix Haditha with the prosecution of eight Camp Pendleton Marines for the slaying of one Iraqi civilian in the village of Hamdania last year.

The similar names of the two places, as well as the fact that the defendants in each case come from identically named platoons, contributes to the problem, Zaid said during a telephone interview from his office in Washington.

"No one charged in Haditha has even come close or is even contemplating saying that they did anything wrong," he said. "They are saddened and torn up about it, but did they intentionally kill women and children? The answer is no."

Zaid represents Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who was charged on Dec. 21 with 13 counts of unpremeditated murder, two counts of soliciting another to commit murder and making a false official statement.

He is one of four enlisted men from a Kilo Company platoon attached to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, charged in the Nov. 19, 2005, incident.

Four battalion officers are also charged with dereliction of duty for failing to properly investigate the slayings in a case that Zaid also contends is highly politicized. The defendants, he argues, are being "sacrificed for foreign policy reasons."

The unrelated Hamdania case involves a platoon from the base's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. The men charged with that killing were attached to that regiment's Kilo Company, a common company name used by the Marine Corps.

"The confusion between the two cases, and other clear examples of criminal misconduct in Iraq, has also contributed to the negative and inaccurate public images of our client and his fellow Marines," Zaid wrote in a statement released this week.

Wuterich, the squad leader, and the men he led in Haditha are charged with violating the military's rules of engagement in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians. The slayings took place after a roadside bomb destroyed a Humvee, killing a lance corporal, as the Marines' four-vehicle convoy was passing through the city.

The men and their attorney maintain they were within the rules when they returned fire and used grenades in assaulting several homes where they believed insurgents were using as positions to fire at the men. The squad also is charged with killing five men who fled from a taxi shortly after the roadside bombing.

"If the rules of engagement and the laws of war are to mean anything, then Staff Sgt. Wuterich is innocent of all charges," Zaid said.

In the Hamdania case, five of the eight charged with abducting and killing a retired policeman on April 26 of last year have entered guilty pleas and been sentenced to jail terms ranging from 12 months to eight years. The men who have pleaded guilty have each said the killing arose out of a desire to "send a message" to that community about insurgent activity.

Zaid said Wuterich's case is scheduled to start June 4 when he will appear in a Camp Pendleton courtroom for an Article 32 hearing.

Article 32 hearings are used by the prosecution and defense to outline their cases and call witnesses. Comparable to probable cause hearings in civilian court, the hearing results in a recommendation as to whether an accused should be ordered to a court-martial.

That determination is ultimately made by the convening military authority over the case, Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, head of Marine Corps forces in the Middle East who is based at Camp Pendleton.

The first court session for one of the accused officers may take place as soon as the week of March 12, according to Zaid.

Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a Marine Corps spokesman handling Hamdania and Haditha media inquiries, said Wednesday that he could not immediately confirm the March date.

In a related development, Wuterich has established a Web site that Zaid said is intended to "educate the public about Frank."

The site, www.FrankWuterich.com, also is a vehicle to help raise money for his defense, which could easily cost several hundred thousand dollars, Zaid said.

Wuterich is paying two civilian attorneys: Zaid and lead counsel Neal Puckett. He also has been assigned a military attorney at no cost, said Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, coordinator of the Marine Corps' western region defense office.

- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.