CAMP PENDLETON -- Attorneys for CBS and the Marine Corps are due in a base courtroom Wednesday to battle over unaired portions of a "60 Minutes" interview with a Marine recounting the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians following a roadside bombing.

Prosecutors contend that segments of the interviews not shown in the March 2007 broadcast may prove their case against the Marine, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich.

Wuterich is accused of nine counts of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and obstruction of justice. The charges stem from Wuterich leading his squad in an assault on several homes after the Nov. 19, 2005, bombing in the Iraqi city of Haditha that killed one of his men.

The storming of those homes resulted in the deaths of men, women and children, none of whom were later proven to have any ties to the bombing or the Iraqi insurgency.

CBS argues a military judge's refusal to approve a subpoena ordering the network to turn over unaired material should stand because there is nothing vital to the prosecution. Doing otherwise also would violate the network's First Amendment privilege to not have to divulge all "the fruits of its newsgathering," its attorneys say.

The network isn't opposed to letting the judge view the unaired portions in private, saying they're confident the material won't shed any new light on the case. After viewing the tapes, CBS wants an order preventing prosecutors from having access to that material.

But prosecutors argue in a court filing that their subpoena goes beyond the unaired material to include any "nonverbal acts, actions and/or acknowledgements" made by Wuterich when he met with CBS reporter Scott Pelley.

Their subpoena, they say, covers "the entire spectrum of admissions in the possession of CBS Broadcasting, not just the non-broadcast admissions."

Wuterich's lead attorney, Neal Puckett, said Tuesday that his client makes no admissions on the unaired portions, nor did he make any implicating statements to Pelley when the camera wasn't rolling.

"I was there for the entire four hours and there's nothing," Puckett said during a telephone interview.

Four Camp Pendleton officers and four enlisted men were charged with crimes in the wake of the Haditha bombing. All but Wuterich and the battalion commander at Haditha, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, have since been exonerated through court hearings, trials or withdrawal of the charges.

Chessani, accused of dereliction of duty for not ordering a full-scale probe of the killings, is waiting for an appellate court ruling on whether dismissal of charges against him should stand.

Wednesday's hearing is scheduled to start at 8 a.m.

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