John W. Rodriguez gets 7 1/2 years
Some of you may remember John W. Rodriguez, the phony Marine in Arizona. Yesterday, he found guilty on 12 counts of forgery, fraudulent schemes and presentation of a false instrument for filing. For this he earned seven and a half years in an Arizona gray bar hotel. It also got him four years of probation tacked on to the end of his sentence.
Here’s the story of how he was busted from AZCentral;
Dan Ryan, a former Marine and FBI agent, first came in contact with Rodriguez at a Republican committee meeting in 2008. He noticed Rodriguez wearing a service uniform with some of the military branch’s highest honors, including the Navy Cross.
[…]
Ryan decided to look into Rodriguez’s background. After doing some research, Ryan alerted investigators at the Arizona Department of Public Safety.A search of Department of the Navy and Department of Defense records found that Rodriguez never served in any branch of the military.
The video report;
So you phonies had better be careful about who is checking you out…it might be the FBI.
According to the article, Rodriguez not only fooled civilians, he fooled the local Marine Reserve unit with which he trained at times. He also had an ID card that allowed him into military bases across the southwest US. The FBI began to treat Rodriguez like a domestic terrorism case.
This Ain’t Hell takes pride in the small part we played in this outcome. With our wide readership, we were able to connect an informant with the Arizona law enforcement community which helped with Rodriguez’ initial arrest. We’d also like to thank the lead detective for keeping us abreast of developments in the case, lo these many months.
And thanks to ROS, Southern Class and Azygos for mailing the links last night. And to Code Monkey at TC Override for the initial post.
Category: Phony soldiers
“…found guilty on 12 counts of forgery, fraudulent schemes and presentation of a false instrument for filing.”
Yeah, lying is harmless. Ain’t that right Judge? Well, except for everyone he screwed over…
Probably just one more case for the 9th Circuit wackos to overturn. But he can squirm for awhile as he waits the outcome.
I think this POS should be in jail for wearing our countries highest honors but dosn’t it bother anyone else that a FBI Agent just decided to look into his background with no evidence that any crime had been committed? Whats to stop this agent from just picking people at random and “looking into them”?
“He also had an ID card that allowed him into military bases…” That is perhaps the most frightening aspect of this story.
JonP:
The link to the AZCentral article of July 25 2010 has more information, including but not limited to this:
“Ryan’s hunch led the former FBI agent to do some digging of his own and ultimately put him in touch with investigators at the Arizona Department of Public Safety.”
If I may add regarding Mr. Ryan: Diligence and discretion, hand in hand.
< Looks at JonP…..Eh…JonP? Git them stained shorts off of yer tail, troop. Geez Louise! I hate MP duty once in a blue moon,ERF!
JonP: There have only been 32 recipients of the Navy Cross since Viet Nam. (Source: http://www.homeofheroes.com/members/02_NX/ncross_list.html) If I met someone who said they had earned it, I would Google him the minute I got home because I would want to know the rest of the story. I would be thinking that I just met a hero.
If I could not find anything that said he had actually earned that medal, I would then assume Stolen Valor… and contact TAH.
When Ryan met Rodriguez, the 9th circuit had not yet decided that the Stolen Valor Act was unconstitutional. So I would think that he had every reason to believe that a crime was being committed.
Ryan even admitted his first thought was “This guy’s a stud.” I don’t see the harm in him trying to find out if he had just met someone who wore a medal that he knew is given out very rarely.
I support the actions of the FBI agent in this case as there was definitely some good reason to be looking into things, particularly with the Navy Cross. I also think, even if the Stolen Valor Act is determined to be unconstitutional, that evidence of Stolen Valor should logically be considered probable cause to suspect some other kind of fraud going on, warranting investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the incidence of the Stolen Valor to uncover possible evidence of other type of crime.
hey guys, what i am saying is why didn’t the agent just walk up to this clown and start asking him questions then and there. As a former (if such a thing exists) Marine his bullshit meter would have exploded in short order and then he could have started digging into this dipshits background. Of course, this might have been after he was bitch slapped into the ground and had the uniform ripped off his carcass.
Oh, he was an FBI agent. They don’t like to get their suits messed up.
This guy is scum. No doubt about it. I hope someone can help me with a similar situation. I have a neighbor that claims to have spent 14 years in the USMC. Reached the rank of E8 MSgt. Claims to be a decorated war hero, sniper, special forces, BUDS training ( that’s Navy Seals only, isn’t it?), etc.,etc. His stories are crazy and unbelievable. And he’s telling this crap to my kids. Yet he claims he lost his Form DD214. And has no pictures or anything Marine Corps related to back up any of this. Claims he got out due to a back injury during a training exercise and now receives a disability check form the Marines. Yet, after his “discharge” he says he became a federal agent for 6 years! Something’s not right here. I think he is on the run from law enforcement somewhere. He has 15 or more different aliases/variations to his name. Should I report him? If so, who do I report him to? Please help me out here.