Posted on 03/22/2008 9:25:44 PM PDT by SmithL
NEW CASTLE, Colo.—A Colorado man is accused of stealing an Army veteran's identity and using it for 24 years to get married, obtain free medical treatment and even serve as president of a VFW post.
Mark Mulcahy, 46, faces felony charges of identity theft, forgery and criminal impersonation. He was being held in the Garfield County jail Friday in lieu of $45,000 bail. It wasn't known whether he had an attorney.
Mulcahy obtained a military retirement document in 1984 in the name of David Keith Anderson of Modesto, Calif., according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Anderson, also known as David Ronayne, died in a bicycle accident in 2006, the affidavit says.
It wasn't clear if Mulcahy had ever served in the military.
The affidavit says Mulcahy lived under Anderson's name in New Castle, 130 miles west of Denver, and used his identity to have surgery at no charge at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Denver. The upper gastric hernia surgery cost $6,296.
In 2004, Mulcahy joined a VFW post in nearby Glenwood Springs, saying he had retired after 20 years in the Marine Corps, the affidavit says.
He later became post president but members complained about missed meetings and other problems, and when state VFW officials tried to contact him, they were told he had moved away, the affidavit says.
Mulcahy married under Anderson's name and hid his true identity from his wife, the document says.
The VA's inspector general began investigating Mulcahy after a phone call from Mulcahy's wife, authorities said, but it wasn't clear how she learned of the alleged deception nor why she called authorities.
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
DITHF ?
Scum.
Bummer, just leaves us hanging.
Hell hath no fury like a scorned woman!
this boy must have been really stupid or bad to have the wife bust him. ha.
How can this be?
The questioning by "seniors" there should have uncovered a fraud within hours!
Cut his privates, sew ‘em in his mouth!
nope. JMAAOY.
Who ?!?!?
One of Rush Limbaughs “Phony Soldiers”?
Ouch!
There are several interesting observations to this story. First...if you check out New Castle...there are only 1,900-odd residents in town...with 700-odd families total. So everyone knows everyone else.
I’m guessing that this guy had ongoing affairs and the wife was about to divorce him...getting her paperwork up and ready...and then started to discover that he couldn’t be who he said he was. Maybe a private detective helped...but she was out to divorce him...no doubt.
As for the crime...based on the recent laws passed...I doubt the guy can get more than twelve months for posing as a GI...although he went and had surgery at the VA...and they could make him repay that whole episode. That might tear into his billfold a bit. And after that...the divorce paperwork.
What are the chances that he was originally a war protester? Probably a coward or he would have joined. 30 years ago people spit on Veterans, now they steal there identities. Just goes to show the Viet Nam Veterans were the best of their generation.
How can this be?
The questioning by “seniors” there should have uncovered a fraud within hours!
I took a motorcycle course with a “nam vet” that walked in looking just like he got out... bragged enough to make you puke. Door gunner and all that crap. I looked over his shoulder when he was filling out paper work. He would have been 14 years old in “69 when he said he joined the marines. They are still out there.. amazing. Primatreat.. US 534457...... “66-68 Still hurting......
Another scumbag wannabe busted. Great news. The article says he is 46. So we are talking about a scumbag, who was born around 61-62. I wish the Stolen Valor Act authorized much more severe sentences and fines.
This story broke on the Simpsons years ago. Principal Skinner stole his platoon leaders identity.
ping
Roger that!
Just imagine how much better it would have been if we had all those Rambos with us at the time!
To borrow and overused but expressive cliché -— Did you ever notice that it was NEVER the size of the dog in the fight — but the size of the fight in the dog?
The “little or quiet” guys were almost always the most reliable and efficient in a fire fight..
I always teased them that they were deluding themselves into thinking they were too small to hit....
Sadly, they weren’t.
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