Stolen Valor Act in PA

| April 16, 2015

Matthew Ott

ABC27 reports that our buddy, Matthew Ott, a teenager who was victimized by valor thief Nate Fornwalt last year, was in the halls of his legislature yesterday as the Pennsylvania Senate passed their new Stolen Valor Act out of that body;

Not many teenagers are concerned about what’s happening at the Capitol, but 15-year-old Matthew Ott is. Matthew and his father have been fighting for Senate Bill 43 to become a law.

The stolen valor bill will toughen the penalties against those who pretend to be veterans or veterans who embellish their record for personal gain.

Unfortunately, it is something Matthew experienced first hand. He has been raising money for veterans for years and says one of them took advantage by embellishing his record to get a donation. Upset and disappointed, Matthew wanted to make a change in the law.

“I more or less talked to my dad about it to see what we could do and then that is how Senate Bill 43 came along,” said Matthew.

Senator Anthony Williams sponsored the bill and invited the family to be present for the vote Wednesday. The bill passed the senate unanimously.

So, the bill is headed to the House for a vote, and young Matt will be there for that one, too.

Matt’s dad, John, called us this morning as told us that the Stolen Valor Act will impose a penalty of two years in jail and a $5000 fine on those convicted in Pennsylvania. Of course, it comes too late to whack Nate Fornwalt, or any of the others, but it hangs over the head of those who haven’t been caught yet.

Category: Stolen Valor Act

9 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
ChipNASA

Damn, Fine work son and I am *personally* sorry that you had to go through what you did with *dickless* Nate Fornwalt to be able to make this happen.

YOU are to be COMMENDED.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

Matthew Ott

Thank you young man for exemplifying what makes this a great nation. I served my time in the military many years ago but I see these liars trying to take something from all of these great young men and women who are risking their lives in the Global War On Terror (GWOT). What you’ve done is two fold and magnificent. You’ve tried to raise money to let them know that our civilian population still has a lot of great people who care about them enough to invest time and energy to ease their financial worries, and second when you discovered that there are some con men who will attempt to take what they never earned by pretending to be something they were not you worked to get the law changed to criminalize that fraudulent behavior.

Best of luck to you, I am certain we will hear a great many good things about over the decades to come.

Bravo Zulu Matthew!

HMCS(FMF) ret.

WORD!

Dustoff

Could not have said it better myself.

A Proud Infidel®™

DITTO!

B Woodman

I’m sure the law will pass, all credit to Mr Matthew Ott. Excellent job, young man. But enforcing it will be up to the prosecutors — who are a spotty bunch, at best.

Airdale USN

Great work!!!!

Parachutecutie

Well done Matthew. Well done. You are an amazing American and a role model to our nation’s youth as well as those of us who are far from youth.

Old Nam Vet

I wonder why Texas doesn’t have a law against it?