Abu Ghraib torture lawsuit moved to Virginia

A federal lawsuit filed in Seattle against a Renton man accused of torture while he was an interrogator at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has been transferred to the U.S. District Court in Eastern Virginia.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez granted an unopposed motion by Daniel "DJ" Johnson of Renton and other defendants in the lawsuit to consolidate three such lawsuits in Alexandria, Va., near the headquarters of one of the chief defendants, CACI International. CACI employed Johnson and Timothy Dugan of Pataskala, Ohio, as interrogators, and L-3 Communications, which employed the third individual, Adel Nakhla.

Three separate lawsuits were filed last month in Seattle, Greenbelt, Md., and Columbus, Ohio alleging the men were involved in the torture of detainees at the Baghdad prison in 2003 and 2004 and that their companies conspired to cover up the acts.

The Seattle lawsuit was filed by Sa'adoon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, a 36-year-old Arabic teacher and Baghdad shopkeeper who said he was taken from his home in late 2003 and held as a "ghost detainee" at the prison. He suffered torture for more than a year before his release, according to the lawsuit.

While Al-Ogaidi did not know the names of his tormentors, the lawsuit alleges, "facts known to date" indicate that Johnson and other defendants "conspired with certain military personnel to torture prisons kept at the Abu Ghraib hard site."

Johnson had not commented on the lawsuit. His lawyer, Patrick O'Donnell said he was a 21-year-old fresh out of the Army who went to Iraq to further serve his country, "which he did honorably."

Al-Ogaidi's attorney, Gilbert Levy of Seattle, did not immediately return a call for comment.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com