Wearing Purple Heart in Fraud Is a Criminal Act

[douglas9]

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - A man who accidentally shot himself in the thigh in the 1990s, and then said his injury was a Vietnam War wound to get the Purple Heart and $180,000 in disability benefits, does not have a valid constitutional challenge to the Stolen Valor Act, the 9th Circuit ruled.

David Perelman pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud in Nevada when the government learned that his thigh wound was self-inflicted and not the result of a shrapnel injury allegedly sustained decades earlier in Vietnam during Perelman's brief tour as a cargo specialist. Prosecutors said Perelman wore the prestigious medal to a national convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Las Vegas.

Perelman appealed his conviction on the basis that that the Stolen Valor Act is unconstitutionally vague.

But a three-judge panel disagreed Monday as the law "makes clear that a person who has not received authorization may not wear a medal."


http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/09/28/40114.htm