One man to walk free from his culpable acts, while an honest man must deplete his checking account to prove the truth?

Calumet Park, Illinois Mayor Joseph DuPar is an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. Army who served for 11 months and 26 days in Vietnam with the 664th Ordnance Company out of Fort Hood, Texas. Last year, in his Election for Mayor against challenger Abe Wilson, DuPar’s campaign issued a flyer touting his candidacy under the “Continued Progress Party,” which included a short biography, some professional affiliations, and the obligatory promises should he be elected. But it is one sentence on that flyer that has the mayor and his opponent heading to court, and perhaps not for what you might think. The sentence read:

“As a Sergeant in the military, I received the Medal of Honor with (4) Bronze Stars for my Leadership.”

Mayor DuPar is not a recipient of this nation’s highest award for valor, nor does he have one Bronze Star, much less four of them. It’s almost the textbook example of a violation of the Stolen Valor Act. But he’s not going to court to defend himself on that account; he’s taking Wilson to court for defamation.

In a filing in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill., DuPar claims that his suit rests on Wilson’s duty “to refrain from intentionally and with actual malice publishing and distributing statements with knowledge that they were false and/or with reckless disregard of whether they were false or not.” As evidence of Mr. Wilson’s nefariousness, DuPar cites to a flyer that Wilson’s campaign published and distributed that read in part:

“Did MAYOR JOSEPH DuPar Really earn a Medal of Honor and Four Bronze Stars???? He has misled us in so many other areas, maybe he is misleading us again. His medals cannot be found on the Internet and the Department of Defense’s National Personnel Records Office is still looking for those medals.”

Included in the filing was a copy of DuPar’s DD214, which he seems to think proves his case regarding the “Bronze Stars;” he is silent regarding his claims of having earned the Medal of Honor. In the filing, DuPar claims that “Defendant’s statements are false as plaintiff did in fact earn four Bronze Star Medals.”

However, DuPar’s DD214 shows he did not earn any Bronze Star Medals, but rather “Vietnam Service Medal w/4 Bronze Service Stars.” A Bronze Star Medal is the “fourth-highest award for bravery, heroism or meritorious service,” awarded to those “engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States.” Those awarded for valorous acts also include a “V” insignia so designating them from ones awarded for merit or meritorious service. However, Bronze Service Stars are an attachment to another medal, denoting participation in certain campaigns or multiple receipt of the same medal. While the Bronze Star Medal is an individual decoration, Bronze Service Stars affixed to a medal are not.

I repeatedly contacted DuPar’s Attorney of Record, Felicia Frazier, who refused to discuss the issue with me at that time, although she promised to call me back. Needless to say, her number has never flashed on my caller ID.

Stolen Valor Act

Not only does DuPar’s civil suit seem to rest on an erroneous reading of his own discharge papers, but his claim may open him up to a criminal prosecution for violation of the Stolen Valor Act. Passed by Congress and signed into law in December of 2006, the Stolen Valor Act makes it a federal misdemeanor offense to claim receipt of military medals for valor to which you are not entitled. The case of DuPar is a textbook example of a violation of that law, and yet no legal action has been taken against him. Why?

I contacted the FBI agent working the case on four occasions. (I didn’t get express permission to use his name, so I will call him Agent P.) Agent P is not only a longtime FBI agent, but also a former Marine who served during Desert Storm, and he’s decidedly unhappy with Mayor DuPar and his false claims of valor. I asked Agent P why no charges have been levied, and he asked me to contact the U.S. Attorney’s office and find out from them, and that I should call him back and let him know. I called Patrick Fitzgerald’s office three times, and like with Felizia Frazier, I received no response.

This isn’t the first time a U.S. Attorney has failed to act on a Stolen Valor claim in the presence of prima facia evidence. In September of last year, I wrote a piece on The American Legion’s Burn Pit blog about anti-war phony Marine Rick “Duncan” Strandlof, whose tales of surviving 9/11 at the Pentagon (and whose injury during the Battle of Fallujah left him with a metal plate in his head) had sparked my interest in the man back in March. You just don’t hear about that many openly-gay battalion commanders of Marine grunts. Anyway, in the Strandlof case, I wrote the following, all of which is exactly the same for DuPar:

I spoke with the special agent, who happens to be a former Marine. Now, let me interject that the FBI in Denver is a top-notch outfit, as proven just this weekend by them arresting three men on terrorism related charges. The agent that I spoke with knew exactly what I was calling about, and every reference I dropped about the Duncan Affair he knew off the top of his head. Now, I will not relate the entire conversation, since I am sure he would rather not be dragged into this, but he made it abundantly clear that it was the U.S. Attorney’s decision alone to drop the case (which he seemed to disagree with) and that he was not authorized to tell me much more than that. He did inform me that the process is that the office of the U.S. Attorney will send a letter to the FBI declining to prosecute on the charge, and generally contain the reasoning such a decision was made. He said he had not as of yet received that letter, nor would he be at liberty to release it to me even if he had.

Eventually the U.S. Attorney in Colorado filed charges against Mr. Strandlof.

(In fact, the ACLU is even working on Strandlof’s defense, claiming that lying about your military bravery is every man and woman’s Constitutional right. Get that? There’s a limitation on your gun ownership, but none on eliciting sympathy and contributions for pet political causes by blatantly lying about whether you were even there.)

Agent P had repeatedly asked me over the past few weeks to hold off writing this piece. He maintained that the U.S. Attorney would (almost at any second) see the light and file charges. Today when I called he sounded exhausted and frustrated, telling me “do what you have to do.” On July 21, Abe Wilson will have to report to court to answer the spurious charge of defamation for pointing out to the voters of Calumet Park what is evident to anyone who can read, that Mayor DuPar was lying through his teeth. Felicia Frazier, the lawyer who filed the law papers with blatantly fabricated “facts” will likely escape any repercussion for her false filing. Mr. Wilson won’t be able to dodge his legal bills with such dexterity.

One man has a date with a judge; the other continues to be the mayor of an Illinois town. One man’s just an honest Marine who felt called to public service, one a man who holds on to his sinecure through publication of his false heroics. I recognize that politics is a full contact sport, but must the legal system be manipulated by the phony and the lazy to allow one man to walk free from his culpable acts, while an honest man must deplete his checking account to prove the truth?