Still no charges for accused Colo. faker - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Still no charges for accused Colo. faker

It was a case of military fraud so complete it led a statewide veterans organization to disband.

Richard Glen Strandlof, 32, was arrested May 13 in Colorado on an outstanding warrant after the FBI questioned him about his purported past as a Marine captain, three-time Iraq war veteran, wounded warrior and survivor of the 9/11 terror attack on the Pentagon.

It was all a lie, he later admitted in a nationally televised interview on CNN. He never served a day in the military, despite presenting himself for about two years as Rick Duncan, a gay war hero who spoke frequently on behalf of veterans issues, founded the Colorado Veterans Alliance and campaigned for anti-war political candidates, he said.

Five months after he was exposed by fellow members of the alliance and arrested on an unrelated outstanding warrant for driving with a suspended license, Strandlof has not been charged with any crime, including violating the Stolen Valor Act, which was signed into law in 2006 to crack down on military fakers. Despite a mountain of evidence and his own televised admission of guilt, his case remains open and under investigation, said Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado. He declined further comment.

Strandlof’s case highlights a possible loophole in the Stolen Valor legislation. Passed by Congress in 2005, it is aimed at “whoever falsely represents himself or herself, verbally or in writing, to have been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces of the United States.” It is less clear how it affects someone like Strandlof, who lied repeatedly about serving in the Corps, but apparently did not wear fraudulent medals or say publicly that he rated them, said Doug Sterner, an expert on stolen valor issues.

“Either he didn’t put his heart into his fraud, or he knew what he could and couldn’t get away with,” Sterner said. “I think it would be a very, very hard case to try under Stolen Valor.”

If federal authorities bring a case against Strandlof, it could be on the basis that by claiming he was wounded in combat, he was by extension saying he merited the Purple Heart, Sterner said. Similarly, authorities could make the case that by saying he deployed to Iraq, he was claiming by extension a decoration such as the National Defense Service Medal, which every service member currently receives for serving honorably in a time of war.

The case has frustrated veterans across the country, and spawned spirited discussion in veterans communities online. A Sept. 23 entry on the American Legion’s Burn Pit blog, questioning why he has not been charged, generated more than 120 comments, and at least a dozen bloggers took up the issue afterward.

“Here we have a guy who has admitted to lying about his service and making up stories that portray [veterans] in such a negative manner, and we can’t get our law enforcement officials at the [Justice Department] to apply the law to them,” said Mark Seavey, a former Virginia National Guardsman who wrote the blog post on Burn Pit. “But, Democrat or Republican, right or left wing, we’re going to look out for our brothers and sisters in arms and keep outing these phonies so we don’t have our honor stolen from us by charlatans like has happened in the past.”

Dan Warvi, a former Army staff sergeant who helped expose Strandlof as a fraud, said in an e-mail that he and other members of the former veterans alliance do not want to comment while the investigation is open, in case their comments somehow jeopardize the case. The organization was disbanded in May, with members saying in a statement that Strandlof’s actions had “permanently damaged the reputation of the Colorado Veterans Alliance.”

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