![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/cruz2.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\nEggs sends us a link to the Las Vegas Journal Review<\/a> which reports that Richard R. Cruze Jr.<\/a> is not smiling so broadly now.<\/p>\n A Virginia circuit court judge sentenced former Las Vegas resident Richard R. Cruze Jr., who posed as a highly decorated Army colonel, to seven months in prison on two felony fraud charges linked to a forged military document.<\/p>\n Loudoun County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Thomas D. Horne also on Monday fined Cruze and charged him court costs totaling $1,730.<\/p>\n In addition, Horne ordered Cruze to work 100 hours of community service per year during three years of supervised probation and to attend counseling sessions and mental health evaluations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Cruze pleaded guilty to having forged government documents, a military ID card, and using those documents to get Special Forces license plates in Virginia. You might remember that Cruze outed himself by wading into a convention of Army Rangers in his phony finery and trying to impress them. Of course, it was POW Network<\/a> who aided in his incarceration;<\/p>\n Cruze posted a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 with a nursing organization that said he served in Vietnam from June 1969 to September 1970 as a combat medic and had earned the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Cross of Gallantry, Soldiers Medal and the Army Distinguished Service Medal.<\/p>\n Military records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by a watchdog group, the POW Network, show Cruze never served in combat and received no valor awards or decorations. Instead, he is listed as an Army reservist from July 21, 1988, to Jan. 3, 1994, who served on inactive status for a hospital unit in Phoenix.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Review-Journal also says that Nevada had an opportunity to arrest him when the local cops caught him driving around that state with Purple Heart license plates, but they decided to not press the issue. I’m glad Virginia takes Stolen Valor more seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"