{"id":124726,"date":"2022-04-07T06:41:07","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T10:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=124726"},"modified":"2022-04-07T06:41:07","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T10:41:07","slug":"rhode-island-introduces-bill-for-tougher-stolen-valor-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=124726","title":{"rendered":"Rhode Island Introduces Bill for Tougher Stolen Valor Law"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Sarah Cavanaugh<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No doubt influenced by the recent fiasco with Sarah Cavanaugh scamming people by claiming she was a combat-wounded Marine, Rhode Island has introduced a bill to toughen up their Stolen Valor violations.<\/p>\n

\n

RI lawmaker pushes to criminalize \u2018stolen valor\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

by: Sarah Doiron\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0|<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Posted:\u00a0

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) \u2014 Nearly one month after a woman was arrested for\u00a0profiting off a fake Bronze Star and Purple Heart\u00a0she claimed to have earned while serving in the military, a Rhode Island lawmaker is hoping to criminalize the act of \u201cstolen valor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Cavanaugh, 31, is accused of bilking nonprofit organizations out of thousands of dollars meant for war heroes. She is facing numerous federal charges including wire fraud, faking military awards and service and aggravated identity theft.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then…<\/p>\n

Rep. Samuel Azzinaro, chairman of the House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee, tells 12 News he was inspired by Cavanaugh\u2019s case to introduce legislation that would make it illegal for someone to lie about serving in the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe someone would do that,\u201d Azzinaro said. \u201cWhy would you even do that? That\u2019s the issue I have with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Azzinaro said he doesn\u2019t believe there\u2019s a law currently on the books in Rhode Island that addresses situations like Cavanaugh\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt mars up the people that are in the military and have gone through battle and wars,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that should just not ever happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation, which would make \u201cstolen valor\u201d a misdemeanor crime in Rhode Island, was held for further study during Tuesday night\u2019s House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no timeline as to how this proposal will move forward, Azzinaro believes it will gain traction this session, especially as the Cavanaugh case moves forward.<\/p>\n

Cavanaugh has been\u00a0placed on leave from her job at the Providence VA\u00a0pending the outcome of the investigation, and she has also\u00a0resigned from her role as the commander of VFW Post 152.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, add another state to the list to make the laws stricter.\u00a0 Hopefully, it will pass in Rhode Island.\u00a0 Maybe with enough states passing these laws, it could be a signal to introduce and pass something on a federal level – or stiffen up the current Stolen Valor Act.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No doubt influenced by the recent fiasco with Sarah Cavanaugh scamming people by claiming she was … Rhode Island Introduces Bill for Tougher Stolen Valor Law<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":124728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[408,183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stolen-valor","category-stolen-valor-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/124728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}