WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- A U.S. Army officer who was once charged with killing Iraqi civilians has been ordered to report for duty in August.
Lt. Erick Anderson, formerly a resident of Twinsburg, Ohio, resigned from the Army in 2006 after murder charges against him were dismissed, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. But he is in the Individual Ready Reserve, allowing the Army to call him up and redeploy him to Iraq or Afghanistan.
U.S. Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, told the Plain Dealer he has written Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. He said that the Army should either halt Anderson's redeployment or release him from the Ready Reserve.
"What happened to him the first time was abysmal," LaTourette said. "This is unbelievable."
The charges against Anderson were dropped after a sergeant who had implicated him in the killings said that he had done so to get a better deal.
Neil Puckett, Anderson's lawyer, said he has been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
