Silver Star fake sentenced, avoids jail, loses police job
Dai Uy
X-URL: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/2009/11/cal-expo-office.html
or http://tinyurl.com/yf9ueg7
November 30, 2009
Cal Expo officer who falsely claimed Silver Star is sentenced
From Bill Lindelof:
A Cal Expo police officer was sentenced today to 200 hours of
community service for falsely claiming he earned a Silver Star for
gallantry in combat during the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
Eric Gene Piotrowski, who was charged under the Stolen Valor Act, was
also sentenced in federal court to 12 months' probation.
Piotrowski, 41, must perform the community service at a veteran's
hospital. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory G. Hollows said that such
service will give Piotrowski a chance to learn from his mistakes.
Piotrowski was also ordered to give up his state peace officer's
certification and is under a lifetime ban from law enforcement
employment.
The Marine veteran bought the medal via the Internet in 2007.
Piotrowski did not see military action in Operation Desert Storm.
He told family and friends he received the medal and certificate in
the mail after requesting a copy of his military records, according to
an affidavit.
Without his knowledge, Piotrowski's family arranged for California
Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary Roger Brautigan to come
to his Elk Grove home in 2007 and formally present the medal to him.
News of the presentation later appeared on the cover of the
department's newsletter, and skeptical veterans urged the FBI to
investigate.
The Silver Star is the nation's third highest military decoration.
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X-URL: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/11/marine_silverstar_faker_113009w/
or http://tinyurl.com/y8utnfz
11/30/09 4:35 PM
Silver Star fake avoids jail, loses police job - MarineCorpsTimes.com
Silver Star fake avoids jail, loses police job
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 30, 2009 18:08:42 EST
A former Marine corporal and police officer has avoided jail time
after pretending
to be a war hero, but he will never serve in law enforcement again and
must serve
200 hours of community service and 12 months of probation, authorities
said.
Eric Piotrowski, 41, of Elk Grove, Calif., was sentenced Monday in
U.S. district
court in Sacramento, Calif., for violating the Stolen Valor Act, which
prohibits
falsely claiming or wearing unearned military decorations. He will be
required to
perform his community service at a veterans hospital or similar
facility, U.S.
authorities said in news release.
Piotrowski pleaded guilty on Sept. 15 to claiming a fraudulent Silver
Star, which he
said he earned for braving direct enemy fire while covering an
antitank team in
1991 during the Gulf War. U.S. Attorney Michelle Rodriguez previously
told Marine
Corps Times that under a plea agreement, a felony count of lying to
FBI agents
investigating the case could be dropped in exchange for him serving
the community
service, which she called “poetic justice.”
U.S. authorities also ordered Piotrowski, an officer with the
California Exposition &
State Fair Police Department at the time of his May 8 arrest, to turn
in his peace
officer’s certification from the state of California and banned him
from serving in
law enforcement ever again.
In 2007, Piotrowski was honored by the California Department of
Veterans Affairs,
with California VA Undersecretary Roger Brautigan presenting him with
a Silver
Star in his home.
Authorities said this year that the medal was never earned and that a
citation read
by Brautigan — a retired two-star Army general — during the award
ceremony was
fraudulent. It said Piotrowski earned the medal for actions in 1991,
when he
supposedly put himself in harm’s way to allow “breaching units” to
move forward,
provided suppressive fire to cover an anti-tank team, and guided
separated
elements of his unit through enemy forces after an assault on Iraqi
defenses near
Kuwait International Airport.
The citation was wrought with details inconsistent with history and
Piotrowski’s
own DD Form 214, a document that describes a service member’s
assignments and
awards upon military separation.
Piotrowski’s service record shows he did not serve in 1st Force Recon
and did not
earn either version of the Kuwaiti Liberation Medal. The medals were
awarded by
the Saudi Arabian government to any service member with direct
participation in
Desert Storm and by the Kuwaiti government for participation in either
Desert
Storm or Desert Shield.
Piotrowski served from November 1986 to July 1991, according to his
Military
Report of Separation. His records show that he spent most of his
career as a
rifleman with infantry units at Camp Pendleton, Calif., but did not
see combat.
Marine Corps Times began investigating the case in December 2008,
before FBI
agents charged Piotrowski. In a Dec. 3 phone interview, he expressed
surprise when
his citation was questioned, saying he was first notified he rated the
Silver Star in
2007 after he sought his military medical records. That prompted an
audit of his
service record, he said, adding that he later received the citation
from the National
Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
Pressed on the details of his purported actions in Kuwait, Piotrowski
said he
remembered the event, “but I don’t recall the specifics of it.”
“I remember being on a Humvee and providing fire support,” he said.
“We were out
there trying to provide fire support so that we could move the mission
forward.
That was it.”
PREVIOUS STORIES
Former corporal admits faking Silver Star - http://tinyurl.com/lezo2x
FBI: Former Marine’s Silver Star a fraud - http://tinyurl.com/phv9pp
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