Charles Graner

Along with other soldiers of his Army Reserve unit, the 372nd Military Police Company, Graner was accused of allowing and inflicting sexual, physical, and psychological abuse on Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, a notorious prison in Baghdad during the United States' occupation of Iraq.

Charles A. Graner Jr. (born November 10, 1968) is an American former soldier who was court-martialed for prisoner abuse after the 2003–2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

After graduating from high school in 1986, Graner attended the University of Pittsburgh for two years before dropping out to join the Marine Corps Reserve in April 1988.

He had the Marine Corps emblem and the letters "USMC" tattooed on his upper right biceps.

In 1990, Graner married Staci M. Dean, a 19-year-old from Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania.

The couple had two children.

Trained as a military policeman, he served in the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

On January 11, 1991, he arrived in Saudi Arabia, taking part in Operation Desert Storm.

From there, he traveled to the largest prisoner-of-war camp near the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, where he worked for about six weeks.

After his marriage, he moved to Butler, Pennsylvania, a steel industry area in southwestern Pennsylvania.

In 1994, he began working as a corrections officer at Fayette County Prison in a shift with a "no-nonsense reputation."

Once, Graner was accused of putting mace in a new guard's coffee as a joke, causing him to be sick.

He was in the Marines until May 1996, when he left with the rank of lance corporal.

Graner was deployed during the Gulf War, serving with the 2nd MP Co, originally of 4th FSSG, 4th Marine Division, a Marine Reserve unit based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In May 1996, he moved to the State Correctional Institution, Greene, a maximum-security prison in Greene County, Pennsylvania.

Almost 70% of the inmates were black, many from large cities, but it was located in a rural part of the state and more than 90% of the guards were white.

Guards at the prison were accused of beating and sexually assaulting prisoners and conducting cavity searches in view of other prisoners.

There were also reports of racism, including reports of guards writing "KKK" in the blood of a beaten prisoner.

In May 1997, Graner's wife and mother of their two children filed for divorce and sought a protection order, saying Graner had threatened to kill her.

A six-month order was granted, unopposed by Graner.

Shortly after the first one expired, Staci Dean was granted a second protection order, saying Graner had come to her house, thrown her against some furniture, thrown her on the bed, grabbed her arm and hit her face with her arm.

Three years later, Dean called police after Graner came to her house and attacked her.

Dean said Graner had "yanked me out of bed by my hair, dragging me and all the covers into the hall and tried to throw me down the steps."

Afterwards, Graner called a friend of Dean's and allegedly said, "I have nothing if she's not my wife, she's dead."

Graner admitted the attack and a third order of protection was granted.

Soon after, an order of protection was granted against Graner to protect his estranged wife.

This resulted from Graner's comment to Dean that "she could keep his guns, because he did not need them for what he was going to do to the plaintiff."

In 1998, two guards were fired and 20 others were suspended, demoted or reprimanded for prisoner abuse.

In 1998, a prisoner accused Graner and three other guards of planting a razor blade in his food, causing his mouth to bleed when he ate it.

The prisoner accused the guards of first ignoring his cries for help and then punching and kicking him when they took him to the nurse.

Graner was accused of telling him to "Shut up, nigger, before we kill you."

The allegations were denied; although a federal magistrate judge ruled that the charges had "arguable merit in fact and law," the case was dismissed when the prisoner disappeared after his release.

Graner and four other guards were accused of beating another prisoner who had deliberately flooded his cell, taunting anti-capital punishment protesters, using racial epithets and telling a Muslim inmate he had rubbed pork all over his tray of food.

A second lawsuit involving Graner was brought by a prisoner who claimed that guards made him stand on one foot while they handcuffed and tripped him.

This allegation was ruled to have been made too late under the statute of limitations.

On January 14, 2005, Graner was found guilty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice on charges of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, failing to protect detainees from abuse, cruelty, and maltreatment, as well as charges of assault, indecency, and dereliction of duty.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, demotion to private, dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay and allowances.

Charges of adultery and obstruction of justice were dropped before trial.

On August 6, 2011, Graner was released from the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after serving 6 1⁄2 years of his ten-year sentence.

Graner grew up in Baldwin, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.