MEDIA COVERAGE 
JANUARY 2009

http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/article955350.ece

Activist wants day in court

By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer

Published Thursday, January 1, 2009 7:52 PM

Republican activist Charley D. Price spent much of his Florida career working on behalf of veterans like himself.

Then one day last year, he saw a series of e-mails started by a Texan, who wrote: "Confirmed all falsifications of Charley Dale Price education. … The guy is indeed a fake."

Had Price bought his law degree from a diploma mill?

"My honor will not allow anyone to say that about me," Price said.

So Price, 77, sued. Now a band of brothers is waging an unusual legal battle in an Orlando court with Price, the veterans advocate, suing three Korean War veterans, and a fourth nonvet, for defamation.

Price said the men exchanged defamatory e-mails about his law degree to some of the 17,000 members of the Korean War Veterans Association, the largest group of its kind in the nation.

But this is not an ordinary defamation case to determine if false statements tarnished a reputation.

That's because even Price, adviser to the Korean vets association, acknowledges he is no lawyer. And he did get his law degree from a school effectively shut down by Kansas for granting worthless degrees.

The defendants say they are being sued for telling the truth.

"He's a phony," said Sam Naomi, 84, of Tingley, Iowa, one of the Korean veterans Price is suing. "He's misrepresenting himself. And now he's using the courts to keep us quiet."

All the men sued by Price live outside Florida. Of the four suits, one was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. The rest await a trial not yet scheduled.

Not everything in Price's resume is disputed.

He is the former chairman of Florida Veterans for Rudy Giuliani and a 20-year military veteran. He also served from 2002 to 2006 as external affairs director for the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs.

That position required no law degree, nor does Price's current standing as a state-certified mediator.

Price also is manager of American Eagle Veteran Contracting, a Florida company seeking construction work at both MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and the Bay Pines VA Medical Center in St. Petersburg.

Price's resume lists a law degree from the Monticello School of Law in Kansas. The degree also is listed on his job application at Veterans Affairs.

Price, who lives north of Orlando in De Bary, said in a brief interview last month he is not an attorney and never told anyone he is.

But he said Monticello was a legitimate school. He took classes with lawyers as instructors and completed exams, graduating by 2000, he said.

"I did two years of hard work," Price said. "I didn't just send a check to get a degree."

Price learned of Monticello in 1998 from an ad in USA Today.

But both Kansas and Hawaii later sued Monticello's founder, contending the school was operating without accreditation and lacked legal authority to grant degrees. Both states won default judgments in 1999 and 2000.

Kansas officials portrayed the school as a diploma mill that defrauded students, offering little or no meaningful instruction by a staff of four people, none of whom had legitimate law degrees.

"To the best of my knowledge, Monticello never required anything of its students other than a check or a credit card number," said John Baer, an expert on diploma mills who has worked with the FBI.

Baer questioned how any student could be fooled. "I always wonder with the so-called victims: Did they not have any clue whatsoever?" Baer said. "It's a one-minute due-diligence call to the state bar."

Price, who said he didn't know about the Kansas litigation, told the St. Petersburg Times his attorney would provide proof of the work Price did at Monticello, including exams he took.

But the attorney later refused to do so.

If Monticello were legitimate, Price's correspondence with the school suggests he never got his complete grades or a diploma.

In 1999 and 2000, Price repeatedly sought his grades after he said he mailed back exams completed in Florida, records show.

Price ultimately filed a consumer complaint with the state of Kansas saying he paid Monticello $4,657 for "instructional materials, teacher assistance and law degree (with) diploma."

He told the state he completed course work but wanted a refund if Monticello didn't provide a transcript and diploma.

After Kansas collected part of its judgment against Monticello, the state sent Price a check for $4,192.

Still, Price's resume lists the law degree, including one the Korean veterans group previously put on its Web site, along with one he gave to Florida for the state job.

Some members of the Korean veterans group say they thought Price was an attorney.

In a July 2004 board meeting of the association, a transcript shows the group's national director asking, "Charley Price is an attorney, too, isn't he?"

Dick Adams, the group's first vice president, said: "Oh, yes."

Byron Dickerson, an association official from 2004 to 2006 who said he also thought Price was a lawyer, said in an interview, "He was giving legal advice to the association."

The current president of the Korean veterans group, Bill Mac Swain, said the men Price sued are trying to destroy the group by defaming Price and have allegiance to a rival veterans group.

"It's a sad state of affairs," said Mac Swain, who insisted he never heard Price boasting about being a lawyer.

Bob Fuoco, 75, a Korean veteran who lives in Texas and still suffers severe post-traumatic stress disorder, said he can't afford a lawyer and fears Price's suit against him will ruin him.

"I went through hell in Korea," Fuoco said. "Now I'm going through hell again."  

Web link: http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/article998076.ece

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Police photos obtained by Open Records request at: Web link: http://www.kwp.org/kwva/

This link also provides key documents obtained during research.

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Charley D. Price's defamation suit unearths 1978 rape charge

By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Charley D. Price says his is a sterling reputation hard earned.

He was Gov. Jeb Bush's choice to be external affairs director of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs from 2002 to 2006. He is a decorated Vietnam veteran and a certified family mediator.

But as Price pursues a defamation lawsuit against four men he accuses of smearing his reputation with trash talk about his law degree, an uncomfortable fact has emerged from Price's past:

In 1978, Maryland prosecutors charged him with a first-degree, felony sex offense that carried a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Price, manager of a company that sought construction work at MacDill Air Force Base and Bay Pines VA Medical Center, said he was exonerated.

Prosecutors disagree, noting that a judge issued an arrest warrant against Price after he failed to appear in court. Price was never brought to trial.

An attorney for his ex-wife told a judge he fled to Europe.

To the men Price is suing, it's all a puzzle: Why file a defamation suit, they ask, with this charge lurking?

"It's a defamation case," said Hal Barker, 61, a Dallas resident being sued by Price. "It's like throwing your arms wide and saying, 'You get to know everything about me. Here I am,' "

Price, 77, who lives in De Bary, north of Orlando, doesn't see it that way. The charge was false, he was never convicted and he was fully cleared, Price insists.

"That was totally wiped out and settled," Price said in a telephone interview. "It was erroneous. You're digging and you're digging and you're digging. Don't dig anymore. I can't be trying this in the paper."

Price doesn't think the sex charge is relevant to the defamation lawsuits he has filed against the four men, three of whom are elderly Korean War veterans, in an Orlando court.

Price says the men, among other things, defamed him by saying his law degree was bogus. Price and the men were involved in the Korean War Veterans Association, a group Price formerly advised.

Price, who said he worked hard for his degree, received it from a correspondence school in Kansas that authorities in that state closed after calling it a diploma mill without accreditation or legal authority to grant degrees.

Barker, the only nonveteran among the men sued, said Price's reputation and background are open to inspection as part of the defamation suit.

This is what records from Maryland show:

On Nov. 22, 1977, a 22-year-old Anne Arundel County, Maryland, woman accused Price of sexually assaulting her. On Jan. 30, 1978, police charged Price with a first-degree sexual offense. He was released after posting $2,000 bail.

On Oct. 5, 1978, Price failed to appear in court. A judge revoked bail and issued an arrest warrant.

Documents detailing the accusation are unavailable. But a Dec. 8, 1977, article discovered by Barker in a Maryland newspaper, the Evening Capital, noted that police reports accused Price of luring the woman to his condo via a classified newspaper ad.

Once she arrived, the woman said Price forced her to engage in a sex act, the Evening Capital reported.

In an interview, Price acknowledged he had been charged. But he denied wrongdoing. He said he had never heard of the alleged victim and police never explained why he was charged. He said police were mistaken.

The woman, who is not named in this story because of the nature of the charge, could not be located by the Times. Police officials declined to comment.

Price said he was exonerated.

"That is not true," said Kristin Fleckenstein, a spokeswoman for the Anne Arundel County State's Attorney's Office in Maryland.

In 1999, Price hired an attorney and had his file expunged, which Fleckenstein said sealed criminal case documents from public view. Prosecutors did not object to the action.

Fleckenstein said Price's lawyer failed to send the approved order expunging his records to her office. So when the St. Petersburg Times and Barker asked for records, they were released, she said.

Fleckenstein said expunging the file was not an exoneration, as Price claims. She declined to say if prosecutors still have an interest in pursuing the charge.

Price said he would send a copy of documents detailing his exoneration to the Times. He did not do so after repeated requests.

Price's Maryland attorney, Richard Kodsis, said prosecutors would have to refile the case to pursue the charge. The charge, he said, was dismissed, a requirement for an expungement.

William R. Levesque can be reached at levesque@sptimes.com or (813) 269-5306
[Last modified: May 04, 2009 10:23 PM]

  http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/article998076.ece

Article & video: http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=6767#comments
 
Jesse MacBeth trashes IVAW [Jonn]

Jesse MacBeth, the poster child of the phony soldier movement, and I find common ground. I’ll admit I know what MacBeth says in this video isn’t completely true, because it’s Jesse MacBeth, for Pete’s sake.

However, he admits that IVAW had his DD214 and they helped him forge the DD214 he tried to pass off as proof of his combat experience. For those of you who haven’t seen his real DD214, here it is, courtesy of our friends at POW Network;

I’ve always wondered about the DD214 forgery because MacBeth probably doesn’t have the brains to forge his DD214. But he also calls into question the character of service and the narratives coming from IVAW members.

He also says “higher ups” helped him perpetrate his fraud on themedia. He doesn’t name the “higher ups”, but at the time he inflicted himself on the stage, that could only mean the Veterans For Peace and VVAW clowns who were running the organization behind the scenes.

Now, MacBeth also claims that some IVAW members were discussing bombings. I don’t believe that at all - unless he wants to give us names, dates and places of these discussions.

Well, here’s the video on YouTube he apparently made just last week;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhCKBNHGI_0&eurl=http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=6767&feature=player_embedded

Like I said, you can’t believe MacBeth completely, he’s an habitual liar. However, he makes some of the same points I have proven on this blog. It’ll probably be quite some time before we get disillusioned IVAW former-members coming out publicly, so this all we’ve got for now.

 

Original Story here: http://hotair.com/archives/2006/05/23/jesse-macbeth-video-goes-viral/

http://www.examiner.com/a-1779774~Idaho_man_gets_prison_for_stealing_vet_benefits.html


Idaho man gets prison for stealing vet benefits

Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The star witness in a botched 2005 Idaho attempted murder prosecution will spend 12 months and one day in federal prison after defrauding the government of nearly $100,000 in veterans benefits.

Elven Joe Swisher was convicted in April of wearing unauthorized military medals, presenting false statements and documents to the Department of Veterans Affairs and theft of government funds.

In 2005, the 71-year-old Cottonwood man was the federal government's star witness in the conviction of north Idaho businessman David Hinkson, who was accused of plotting to kill a federal judge, prosecutor and tax agent.

In May, however, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Hinkson deserves a new trial because Swisher forged documents and lied in court about his military background.

Before his conviction was overturned, Hinkson got 43 years in prison.

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http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/government/judicial_and_courts/news.php?q=1208741315

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_id_stolen_valor.html

Last updated January 6, 2009 7:34 p.m. PT

Idaho man gets prison for stealing vet benefits

By JOHN MILLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

BOISE, Idaho -- A witness in a 2005 Idaho murder solicitation case will spend a year and a day in federal prison after being found guilty of defrauding the government of nearly $100,000 in veterans' benefits.

Elven Joe Swisher, 71, of Cottonwood, was convicted last year of wearing unauthorized military medals, presenting false statements and documents to the Department of Veterans Affairs and theft of government funds.

Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill sentenced him Monday to the prison term, as well as still-unspecified restitution and three years of supervision.

Swisher was among at least eight people from the northwestern United States charged in 2007 with faking their military service in conflicts dating to World War II. Federal prosecutors say he falsely posed as a veteran of the Korean War.

In 2005, Swisher was a witness in the federal trial of northcentral Idaho businessman David Hinkson, who was accused of plotting to kill a federal judge, prosecutor and tax agent.

Hinkson was convicted of soliciting the murders of U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy D. Cook, and Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Steven M. Hines. All three had been involved in a separate, federal tax case against Hinkson's water business. None of the officials was harmed.

Swisher sported a replica Purple Heart pin on his lapel while on the witness stand and testified that because of his combat exploits and claims of killing enemy soldiers in battle, Hinkson attempted to hire him.

After Swisher was convicted of fraud in April, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May ruled that Hinkson deserved a new trial because Swisher forged documents and lied in court about his military background.

Federal prosecutors have asked the appeals court to reconsider, though no decision has been made. Before his conviction was overturned, Hinkson was sentenced to 43 years in prison.

Jessica Fehr, an assistant U.S. attorney in Billings, Mont., said Tuesday that Swisher's case wasn't given special priority because of its history. Her office handled the fraud case against Swisher after the Idaho office recused itself due to its past involvement in the Hinkson case.

"It was reviewed and handled in the same manner as any other case that comes through our office," Fehr told The Associated Press.

Swisher will likely be sent to a federal prison near Portland, Ore. He didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Chris Bugbee, Swisher's attorney in Spokane, Wash., told The AP he plans to appeal the case within 10 days. A major point of contention, Bugbee said, is the federal court's rejection in late 2008 of Swisher's request for a new trial.

Corpsman jailed for unauthorized medal

Whether Robert White was injured in Iraq in 2005 and deserved a Purple Heart makes no difference now.

The chief hospital corpsman wore the award without receiving it through official channels, and in the Navy’s eyes, that makes him a faker.

The 19-year sailor, who was selected for advancement to senior chief in March, pleaded guilty Dec. 16 to the unauthorized wearing of a Purple Heart while he worked at Great Lakes, Ill.

White’s military judge sentenced him to 45 days in the brig, busted him down to E-5 and ordered him to forfeit four months of pay.

The Navy initially charged White with several counts of filing false documents, making false statements and knowingly wearing a Purple Heart he never formally received.

He pleaded guilty to Article 134, unauthorized wearing of a Purple Heart; and Article 107, making a false official statement.

White also pleaded guilty to fraternization for dating the second-class personnel clerk who entered White’s Purple Heart information in his official Navy file.

In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges related to submitting false documents.

White’s guilty plea marks an ambiguous end to the case that initially threatened a general court-martial, years in the brig and a dishonorable discharge.

Still unresolved is his claim that he sustained a minor hand injury during a mortar attack in July 2005, when he was deployed with 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, in Hit, Iraq.

White and his immediate supervisor — who took the stand during White’s Article 32 hearing in September — put in late paperwork for the Purple Heart several weeks after White said he was wounded.

A Purple Heart for White was never was approved, and Marine Corps officials said they have no record of granting or denying the award to White.

In White’s guilty plea, he told a military judge that he knew he did not receive the award through official channels, and that he went out and bought the medal himself.

“He did put in [paperwork] for it, but he never got it — and he knew he never got it,” said Lt. Carrie Theis, the lawyer who prosecuted White at Great Lakes Naval Station.

The admission contradicted a witness’s testimony during the Article 32, in which he said White claimed to have found an envelope containing his medal and citation sitting on his desk one day.

Question is called moot

The question of whether White deserved the award is moot, Theis said.

“We are not really pursuing where [the paperwork] may have been stalled up.” Theis said. “It sounds like it was somewhere in theater.”

The investigation stemmed from a formal accusation from a senior chief storekeeper who worked with White at Great Lakes and grew suspicious after hearing rumors that White never earned the award.

To friends and co-workers, White told wildly inconsistent stories about how he earned his Purple Heart. He once told a military doctor that an improvised explosive device struck his vehicle and caused severe injuries that led to a 72-hour coma and a medical evacuation to Germany.

After White pleaded guilty, his attorney presented several medical professionals who testified regarding White’s diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.

White’s future status with the Navy remains unclear. He is seeking a medical discharge based on his PTSD.

He may face administrative proceedings to determine the circumstances of any retirement or separation. A Wisconsin native, White has been in the Navy for 19 years, 15 on active duty, Theis said.

Rear Adm. Douglass Biesel, commander of Navy Region Midwest and the convening authority in the case, still has to approve the judge’s sentence and plea agreement.

White’s case is not unique, said Mary Schantag of the POW Network, which tracks claims of military honors.

“It’s not an isolated incident. It happens more than you would think,” she said. “These guys had earned the right to be called a hero and yet they still have to fudge it.

“And that erases everything. It’s sad that they will forever be known as a liar instead of a good sailor.”

http://www.mysanantonio.com/military/37315364.html

Veterans’ groups challenging Carthage man’s POW account

January 13, 2009 11:30 pm

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http://www.joplinglobe.com/editorial/local_story_017094759.html?start:int=0

None of us in the newsroom saw it coming....

Man sentenced for fake military claims, fraud

ERIE, Pa. — A Pennsylvania car dealer is getting two years and nine months in federal prison for faking military honors and cashing more than $200,000 in counterfeit checks.

Dale Farr was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Erie after pleading guilty in August to falsifying military decorations and bank fraud.

Farr lived in the Erie suburb of North East when the FBI began investigating him. He has since moved to Troy, Bradford County.

The 34-year-old former Army private, who never saw combat, was accused of telling people he had earned honors for service in Afghanistan. The FBI says he bought medals and misrepresented them as ones he earned.

MORE ON HIS SENTENCING