Phonies headed to prison
Russell sends us a link to an update on Danny Crane, who we wrote about last year. Crane tried to steal the story of the Marine who stood guard outside of the hospital room of a youngster who died from cancer last year. He also stole a free “Vacation for Veterans” to Hawaii from an organization meant for a real veteran, according to Tampa Bay Online;
But the Riverview man has a criminal record of fraud and identity theft dating back to 1999, the judge said.
Covington then sentenced Crane to one year and a day in prison and three years probation.
He also was ordered to pay back $7,042 to the VA, $2,093 to the veterans’ organization that gave him the trip to Hawaii and $200 in court costs.
During his probation, Crane also must participate in drug abuse and mental health counseling programs.
“The crime that bothers me the most here is taking money from Vacations for Veterans,” Covington said. “That’s a vacation somebody else didn’t get.”
Meanwhile, in Iowa, Jeffrey Scott Kepler was sentenced to a year for his fakery, according to the DesMoine Register;
Kepler purported to be a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran to receive military health care benefits between 2007 and 2010, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
Kepler also tried to obtain VA disability benefits but was caught.
In September he pleaded guilty to health care fraud.
Kepler served in the U.S. Army for 27 days in 1986 before he was honorably discharged for failing to meet fitness standards.
He did not serve long enough to receive benefits, was never in combat and received no promotions or awards.
Kepler, however, claimed to be a former Airborne Ranger who qualified for Officer Candidate School and won numerous medals, including a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.
I’m sure Bubba will be impressed.
Category: Phony soldiers
And who sez Stolen Valor is a victimless crime?
glad to see someone sent this in, we have a lot of vets who retire down here, and because of that and MacDill being in Tampa there’s a lot of support for the military. it only takes one jerk like him to sour the pot for everyone, and shut out the real heroes who need help.
27 days. That may be some kind of record, but for some reason I believe one of the Stolen Valor other dudes was in for like 6 days and then was a Navy Seal or something. Then again, there are many Stolen Valor types that serve ZERO days.
ouch, I live in Des Moines, IA and it’s spelled Des Moines, with the space, but pronounced DeMoine, so I can see where the confusion came from. (The “S’s are silent)
Danny Crane? For a minute I read that as Denny Crane, and had a vision of William Shatner pulling multiple guns….
[…] probably read our post this last week about Danny Crane, the phony. He was arrested last year for ripping off the VA. He was sentenced to a year and a day […]
I just hope that both of them end up with the most sadistic sodomist of a cellmate they can get, and they’ll be squealing “WEEEEEEEE,….WEEEEEEE,….” in no time, knowhutimean? Posers are bad enough, but scum of the Earth like these that have to take things from legit Vets? It makes me want to renew my crusade for “National Beat a Poser Month”. Under my proposal, during said month, any Real Vet is allowed to beat as many posers as they please each day, but are limited to beating only 6 per day for the rest of the year, whadda y’all think?
[…] FrostyCWO sends us a link from NBC News in which they interview our friends at Guardian of Valor and the Fake Warriors Project about the explosion of phony soldier cases in recent months. The article was apparently triggered by the conviction of Danny Crane; […]