2 Pa. soldiers charged in man's death

The two weren't allowed to return to the U.S. with the rest of their unit.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. military has charged two Pennsylvania National Guardsmen in the February killing of a civilian near Ramadi, the military said Sunday.
Spec. Nathan B. Lynn, 21, of South Williamsport, Pa., was charged with one count of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of an unarmed man Feb. 15, the military said.
Lynn and Sgt. Milton Ortiz Jr., both of the 1st Battalion, 109th Infantry (Mechanized) of the Pennsylvania National Guard, were each charged with one count of obstructing justice. They are accused of conspiring with another soldier who is alleged to have put an AK-47 gun near the body of the man in an attempt to make it look like he was an insurgent.
Ortiz, 36, of Islip, N.Y., also was charged with one count of assault and one count of communicating a threat in a separate incident March 8 when he is alleged to have placed an unloaded weapon against the head of an Iraqi man and threatened to send him to prison, the military said.
Awaiting hearings
Both soldiers are in Baghdad awaiting hearings to determine if there is sufficient evidence for a court-martial.
Maj. Joseph Todd Breasseale, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said Ortiz and Lynn are not being held in a prison but were not allowed to return to the United States with the rest of their unit last week.
"These [charges] are simply an accusation," Breasseale said. "An accused soldier is presumed to be innocent."
Both have been given the option to retain lawyers, but neither has made a decision yet, he said.
Lynn's father, Williamsport police Capt. William Lynn, has told The Patriot-News of Harrisburg that his son maintains his innocence. He did not return messages left by The Associated Press on Sunday.
The soldier's grandfather, William C. Lynn, declined to discuss the case Sunday, but said his grandson was "a good kid, very conscientious." Standing outside his home in Williamsport, he said Nathan Lynn joined the guard because "it was something he felt he had to do for his country."
Lynn joined the Guard in 2002, Ortiz in 1991.
Members of Ortiz's family did not return telephone messages left Sunday.