|
Another Military Fake Busted, Plus New CA MF Law
The new director of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District in Claremont introduced himself with tales so harrowing, so seemingly courageous, that people took notice.Fellow board member Dan Horan said Xavier Alvarez told him he saved a U.S. ambassador and the American flag while wounded by gunfire during a daring rooftop helicopter rescue in Lebanon. Horan said he was puzzled when Alvarez, a board member elected in 2006, later changed his story to say it happened in Iran. And he was skeptical when his colleague also bragged of rescuing Marines pinned down by Viet Cong gunfire in Vietnam. On Sept. 26, authorities charged Alvarez, 49, with violating a 2005 federal "Stolen Valor Act" by standing up at a gathering of water officials in July and announcing he was a wounded veteran, 25-year Marine and a recipient of the fabled Congressional Medal of Honor. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian, who is prosecuting the case, said Alvarez never served in the military. To state Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, the case represents just one of many far too many episodes of people impersonating veterans, embellishing service records or claiming medals they never earned. Cook, a Marine Corps veteran and a Purple Heart recipient in the Vietnam War, this year pushed through a California version of the Stolen Valor Act. The law, which takes effect Tuesday, adds another tier of enforcement to the federal act by allowing state and local law enforcement to cite anyone who falsely dons or claims a military medal or decoration the person didn't earn. Expanding upon an existing state statute allowing misdemeanor citations against people who falsely claim to be active service members or veterans, the law makes it an infraction to lie about military awards on a job application or in an interview or by boasting in public about medals never earned. Cook said Assembly Bill 282 is needed because save for a few federal prosecutions "the FBI has bigger fish to fry" and there are simply too many cases of "repugnant" phony heroes whose lies defame the service of honorable veterans. Some of the offenders are real veterans embellishing their service. Last summer, the FBI charged Augustine Hernandez, 76, of Montebello with posing as a U.S. Army general and wearing the Purple Heart and Bronze Star to a memorial ceremony even though he retired from the U.S. Army as a private in 1954 with no such medals. In 2002, a Roseville man, Justin McCauley, came home after serving as a Navy ordinanceman on the U.S. Kitty Hawk and falsely claimed in a Bee interview he was a Navy SEAL wounded in ground conflict in Afghanistan. Others may have political or financial motives. In September, sentences and guilty pleas were announced for six Washington men charged with lying about their military service, including anti-war protester Jesse MacBeth, 23. He claimed to be a decorated Army Ranger who participated in Iraq atrocities, but he'd been discharged after a month in the Army in the United States. Another Washington man, Reggie Buddle, 60, was convicted of posing as a Marine Corps chaplain so he could perform weddings, funerals and baptisms. Still another, Larry Lewis Porter, 52, was sentenced for making up combat experiences to fraudulently seek naval disability benefits for post-traumatic stress. The new California law would penalize bogus warriors with an infraction and a $250 fine. But that is well below federal penalties allowing a $5,000 fine and six months in prison for lying about military honors. The federal law also imposes up to a year in prison for wrongly claiming the Congressional Medal of Honor or top military awards including the Army Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Air Force Cross, the Purple Heart and the Silver Star. Cook, who unsuccessfully pushed for a felony statute in California, said he is seeking public humiliation for people peddling phony stories of heroism. Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-12-27 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=215716 |