Police say accused faker wore Navy Cross - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Police say accused faker wore Navy Cross

PHOENIX — A man has been accused of pretending to be a highly decorated Marine by wearing a uniform with ribbons representing prestigious military honors, authorities said Thursday.

John William Rodriguez, 31, was arrested Wednesday and faces 13 charges of felony fraud schemes, state public safety officials said. He was being held at the Maricopa County jail, and it was not immediately known whether he had an attorney.

Rodriguez also may face a federal charge of violating the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which makes it a misdemeanor to lie about getting a military decoration. If convicted on the federal charge, he faces up to a year in prison and $200,000 in fines.

DPS Detective Roger Wilson said it was unclear why Rodriguez was posing as a war hero, but that he got discounts on airline tickets, didn’t have to change the registration on his car from California to Arizona and made friends by introducing himself as a Marine.

Wilson said Rodriguez, who is unemployed, had been living in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, at the home of a man he met on a flight to Phoenix, without paying for his stay. Rodriguez is originally from California but has been living in the Phoenix area for the past two years.

He also said Rodriguez cited an upcoming deployment to Iraq to get a court hearing on a drunken-driving charge postponed.

DPS officials arrested Rodriguez after he got off a flight from Sacramento, Calif., where they found Marine uniforms, a medal and ribbons representing the Navy Cross and the Silver Star at the Scottsdale home. Authorities did not know how he obtained the ribbons.

Wilson said the department learned of Rodriguez from a former Marine who saw him being introduced as a decorated war veteran. He said the former Marine noticed Rodriguez’s military dress jacket was missing service stripes and thought it was odd that a young man would be wearing ribbons that represent the Navy Cross and Silver Star.

The Cross is the Navy’s highest award for combat valor, and the Silver Star is the Army’s third highest award for combat valor.

Authorities said they have interviewed people who told them Rodriguez had been posing as a Marine for two years.

Wilson said the impersonation of a military officer who can access bases or certain documents “can be very serious” and that officials were investigating whether he had posed as a Marine to enter a military base.

Last month, a 31-year-old man accused of fabricating an identity as a former Marine captain was arrested in Colorado. Richard Glen Strandlof, who used the name Rick Duncan, founded the Colorado Veterans Alliance, which voted to disband amid the allegations. No charges have been filed but the FBI were investigating whether he falsely represented himself to obtain money.

The U.S. government does not maintain a national database for recipients of military honors. Doug Sterner, a military historian in Pueblo, Colo., has asked Congress to establish such a record because “if we keep track of the real heroes, the phonies are immediately exposed in the light of the truth,” he said.