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Feud between Lynndie England, biographer builds

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The biographer for a former Army reservist involved in the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal says the soldier’s agent should stop using a Web site designed to promote the book and instead build his own “to promote Lynndie England, ‘the celebrity.’“

In his response to a lawsuit over copyright and financial issues, Virginia writer Gary Winkler complains that constant conflicts with England and attorney-turned-agent Roy Hardy “have resulted in a lack of control over our Web presence.”

Winkler claims Hardy wrongly changed the password and cut off access to the Web site for Bad Apple Books LLC, the Virginia-based publishing company Winkler formed in July to promote and sell the book. Winkler, however, retains access to the PayPal account set up for direct sales of the book.

England’s attorney, meanwhile, has asked Hampshire County Circuit Court Judge Donald Cookman to bar Winkler from discussing the case with the media or interfering with his client’s planned public appearances.

The book released in June is called “Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs That Shocked the World.” England is set to sign and sell copies Saturday at Charleston’s Taylor Books.

Her attorney, Royce Saville, also amended his initial complaint this week, asking Cookman to ban Winkler from doing business through Bad Apple Books until the dispute is resolved and to order all revenues from the book put into escrow.

A hearing is set for Sept. 23 in Romney.

England, of Fort Ashby, collaborated with Winkler, of Fincastle, Va., to help repair her public image and outline what she says was a limited role in the mistreatment of detainees at the Iraqi prison in 2004. Photographs showed her holding a restraint around a man’s neck, and giving a thumbs-up and pointing at the genitals of naked, hooded men, a cigarette dangling from her mouth.

She and 10 other soldiers were found guilty of wrongdoing, and last week, she lost the bulk of her appeal claims.

The court battle with Winkler began when he abruptly resigned from A Few Bad Apples LLC, a West Virginia company set up to handle finances, to form his own company. England also claims Winkler refused to provide access to online accounts that she could use to monitor book sales and revenues.

Winkler has denied any wrongdoing and said he does not dispute that the collaboration agreement requires revenues and expenses to be shared. However, he contends it “does not specify who is physically responsible for actually doing the publishing, promoting and selling of the book, since no outside publisher is involved.”

“An additional operating agreement was and is clearly needed to allocate, discuss and establish the finer points,” he said.