Lie resulted in the defendant receiving disability compensation for PTSD for overseas deployment that never happened
DENVER - Following a five-day jury trial in federal court before Senior U.S. District Court Judge John L. Kane, defendant Cameo Williams, Sr., age 34, of Denver, was found guilty of the single count of making a false statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General announced. A sentencing hearing date has not yet been scheduled. Williams appeared at the trial free on a $5,000 unsecured bond.
Williams was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on March 24, 2016. After substantial litigation, his jury trial began on June 12, 2017. The jury found him guilty on June 19, 2016.
According to evidence presented to the jury at trial, Williams spent several years claiming to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from a combat deployment. He was receiving disability compensation from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) for the PTSD. However, the defendant had actually served only a little more than two years in the Army-without a single day spent overseas-before being discharged for misconduct. Williams told the VA that the Army simply made an error in not mentioning his deployment on his discharge paperwork. However, the evidence at trial showed that not only did his personnel file lack any evidence of a deployment, he also had never received combat pay at any point in his Army career and had never had the necessary medical screenings and immunizations required for a deployment. In fact, Williams’ medical records showed him attending doctor’s appointments in Washington state during the time he claimed to have been deployed, and two soldiers from his unit testfied that no one from that unit had deployed during the time Williams said he was overseas.
The defendant faces not more than 5 years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine. This case was investigated by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General, and prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tim Hoffman and Dan Burrows.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
