Jesse Adam Macbeth, 23, formerly of Phoenix, garnered much attention on blogs and in some alternative media after he began claiming in 2005 to have been awarded a Purple Heart for his service, which he said included slaughtering innocents in a Fallujah mosque. His story was contradicted by his true discharge form, showing that he was kicked out of the Army after six weeks at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2003 because of his "entry level performance and conduct."A complaint unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle charged him with one count of using or possessing a forged or altered military discharge certificate, and one count of making false statements in seeking benefits from the Veterans Administration.
"He approached us in early 2006, posing as a war veteran. He seemed very emotionally distressed about his experiences," said Amadee Braxton, a spokeswoman for Iraq Veterans Against the War, based in Philadelphia. "We later found out he had fabricated a lot of his military record and that he was somebody who had mental problems. We hoped that he would get those issues dealt with."
Macbeth claimed to have served from May 2001 to June 2004, to have been shot in Iraq and to have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, LaMont E. Stokes, an agent with the VA's Office of the Inspector General, wrote in the charging papers. The man collected more than $10,400 in benefits to which he was not entitled, Stokes wrote.
Stokes said he interviewed Macbeth in the Pierce County Jail in Tacoma, where he has been serving a sentence for fourth-degree assault, and that Macbeth admitted falsifying the documents because he was homeless and wanted to "sucker" anything he could out of the government.
Iraq Veterans Against the War and other organizations removed his allegations from their Web sites after learning they were false. In one videotaped interview, a skinny, stuttering Macbeth, dressed in a camouflage jacket, described slaughtering hundreds of people in a mosque: "We would burn their bodies ... hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque," he said.
It was not immediately clear when Macbeth moved to Washington state. At his initial court appearance Friday, a magistrate judge ordered him to remain in custody pending a detention hearing Wednesday. Afterward, his public defender, Jay Stansell, declined to comment.
Macbeth also is wanted by the Safford County sheriff's office in Arizona, where he is accused of illegal credit card use. "People posing as veterans do a disservice to those who have actually served," Braxton said.