Thomas DiGirolamo, another bonehead judge
This one slipped under my radar last week; A Maryland judge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas DiGirolamo, dismissed charges against Aaron Lawless when he agreed with Lawless’ lawyers that the Stolen Valor Act was too broad, according to the Washington Examiner;
A criminal complaint says Lawless falsely told the gun manufacturer Glock that he had suffered combat injuries in Iraq while serving in the Marine Corps and Army, earning a Silver Star, four Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars. Glock then named him its hero of the year, awarding him a trip to a Las Vegas gun show and engraved pistols.
Lawless spent 35 days in the Marine Corps until it was discovered that he tried to conceal a previous injury before he enlisted. In other words, he’s a scumbag who tried to con the Corps and then conned Glock to take something of value from a soldier or Marine who actually deserved to be recognized by Glock.
And this greaseball judge just aided and abetted the fraud.
“In its present form, the [Stolen Valor] Act punishes all false statements about the receipt of military honors, including the malicious, the reckless, the mistaken and the innocent,” he wrote.
Yeah, except Lawless’ claims were neither mistaken nor innocent.
And, oh, yeah, he conned the VFW into vouching for him to his employer for a job. But I guess it’s not fraud, huh, Judge Thomas DiGirolamo? Fucking liberal punk-asses think they sound smart when they defend the First Amendment…well, as long their defense doesn’t have anything to do with that religion part.
Category: Legal, Phony soldiers
I’m looking forward to dressing up like a Virginia state trooper this weekend, hitting up all the local establishments for my police discount, maybe getting some free ammo and range time and, after my arrest for impersonating a police officer, arguing that I was just exercising my First Amendment rights.
Problem is, Bobo, they hold LEOs in higher esteem than the military. I’m not bashing cops, just pointing out facts.
I wonder how the law is written to punish people who claim to be a federal magistrate or federal judge? Is this law(s)too broad, punishing “all false statements about the receipt of ‘judicial’ honors, including the malicious, the reckless, the mistaken and the innocent?”
If the laws are the same, I say veteran’s groups should file amicus briefs to overturn the laws which punish false statements of scumbags claiming to be judges. If the laws are different, then Congress needs to rewrite the law for stolen valor.
I’ll probably be banished from this site or, worse, have a few guys rappelling onto my roof shortly but, from a purely legal perspective, I agree with Tommy the Magistrate. It boils down to this. Our speech is protected from government muffling by the 1st Amendment. We are free to say what we want, with limited exception (shouting fire in a crowded theater is the most famous exception but there are a few others). But when the government wants to restrict or limit the content of our speech, there’s a conflict between that action and the 1st amendment. The first thing the government does when the restriction is challenged is to say, “This matter does not involve speech.” This is done in the hope of avoiding application by the courts of the strict scrutiny test, almost always a government case killer. And that’s precisely what happened here. The test was applied and the government lost. Congress should be acting now to revise the Stolen Valor Act because it probably will not survive the Supremes. (I know, I know, there’s a 5-4 conservative majority. Doesn’t matter, not when it comes to this.)
I think I hear a bird approaching now.
2-17 Air Cav: All you have to do is see what Lawless got in exchange for his “free speech”…Glock named him their “Hero of the Year”, flew him to Vegas and gave him stuff – none of which he earned. he really did steal valor from a more deserving veteran. Not to mention that it will make Glock think twice about bestowing this title on another veteran after being burned. So how many other deserving veterans will suffer because of Lawless?
He also got a job based on his phony record, ostensibly robbing another veteran of an opportunity for employment.
This wasn’t innocent chatter or even tavern braggadocios – it was clearly fraud.
You won’t hear me coming.
>it was clearly fraud.
Exactly!
I get it. And I cannot understand why he was not charged with fraud and other type deception crimes for his misrepresentations. Or was he? I don’t know. I read Tommy’s decision and there was no mention of other charges. Perhaps they were served up at the state level but there is no doubt that unless every transaction Glock had with Lawless occurred in the same state and face-to-face, there should have been additional charges.
I’m sleeping with one eye open.
I don’t know if you guys ever saw this before or not. I can’t find any articles to say whether Donn Porter’s original medal ever got returned to the school. The story is over 10 years old. Good detective work finally found it. Hard to believe that it was a POLICE CHIEF who had it! This is literally stolen valor.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1999-12-04/news/9912040037_1_medal-william-porter-james-school
Just wish the judge had had a different name…..
We dealt with this assistance bag here in Nebraska. Several of us Leos had run ins and started to question his validity because his stories seemed far fetched. He wasnt happy that we called him out so he started making outlandish claims against cops and the fbi. Turns out he had illegal machine guns and drugs. Not sure how he got a job in a gun store. He seems to be keeping a low profile now but wonder if he will resurface again?