CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — A 19-year-old Marine was handed a bad conduct discharge and sentenced to 315 days in the brig Wednesday for his part in a conspiracy to illegally purchase, distribute and use the prescription drug Percocet in his Camp Kinser dorm in March.
Pvt. 1st Class James M. Page, assigned to the Headquarters and Service Company of the 3rd Marine Logistics Group, was the second Marine to plead guilty to taking part in what amounted to a Percocet party in the barracks room of Cpl. Damon Jordan, 21, on March 10. At a special court-martial June 28, Jordan was sentenced to 360 days in the brig, with 60 days suspended, and a bad conduct discharge.
Charges against other Marines are pending.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, all but 150 days of Page’s jail time was suspended. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled drug, wrongful use and possession of the drug and soliciting others to use the drug. He also pleaded guilty to illegally entering an unoccupied barracks room to snort ground-up Percocet powder with Jordan.
Percocet, the brand name for a combination of acetaminophen and oxycodone, commonly is prescribed for moderate to severe pain. Oxycodone is classified as an opiate.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Page admitted that he bought 26 Percocet pills from another Marine and split them with Jordan. The two Marines then crushed the pills and shared the powder with other Marines in Jordan’s room, according to testimony at both hearings on Camp Foster.
In a statement made before he was sentenced by Maj. Charles Hale, Page apologized for his actions and said he had a substance-abuse problem stemming from extensive use of alcohol and marijuana in high school.
— David Allen
Police seek 2 suspects in cab attack, robberyOKINAWA CITY — Okinawa police are seeking two men, thought to be American, who are suspected of attacking a cab driver and robbing him of about 32,000 yen (about $279) and $20 in U.S. money at about 4:12 a.m. Tuesday in Okinawa City’s Chuo district.
A spokesman for the Okinawa prefectural police in Okinawa City said the suspects hailed a taxi on Gate 2 Street, near Kadena Air Base, and told the driver in English to take them to the nearby Chuo district. There, one of the men, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, grabbed the driver by the neck while the other man took the driver’s wallet.
They fled on foot, the police spokesman said. The 64-year-old driver reported no serious injury.
Both suspects were described as being black, about 6 feet tall and between ages 20 and 30. One wore dark clothing and covered his face with a white towel, according to the police report. The other suspect wore a white sweatsuit.
Okinawa police asked military police to help in the investigation.
Sailor accused of smashing cab windowOKINAWA CITY — A 27-year-old sailor assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni remained in Okinawa police custody on Wednesday. The sailor is accused of breaking a taxi’s window at about 1:55 a.m. Monday in Okinawa City’s Nakasone district, according to an Okinawa prefectural police spokesman.
The police report said the sailor, a petty officer second class, smashed a taxi’s rear-seat window with his fist when the cab driver refused to take him as a passenger.
The police spokesman said the sailor fled but police officers spotted him a few blocks away, walking in the Goya district near Kadena Air Base’s Gate 2. Police took the sailor, who appeared intoxicated, into custody at about 2:40 a.m., the spokesman said.
Police sent the vandalism case to the Naha District Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday, the spokesman said.