Drill Instructors at Parris Island Arraigned in Hazing Probe
In this Thursday, April 28, 2016 photo, graduating Marines run past family members on family day at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, S.C. (Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)
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Staff Sgt. Matthew Bacchus, Staff Sgt. Jose Lucena-Martinez and Sgt. Riley Gress were arraigned Friday at special courts-martial at Quantico Marine Corps Base. Trial dates were set for March and April.
The drill instructor who oversaw all three, Staff Sgt. Antonio Burke, faced a preliminary hearing Thursday, in which recruits testified they were called homophobic slurs and forced to do calisthenics in a dusty building.
The Marine Corps launched its investigation after the March death of recruit Raheel Siddiqui, who fell from a barracks stairwell following an altercation with an unidentified drill instructor.
None of those arraigned Friday were connected to Siddiqui's death.