Jacob Cruze Made public appearances dressed as a highly decorated Army colonel

A Las Vegas man under federal investigation, suspected of posing as a highly decorated retired Army colonel, has been cited under state law for violations including illegally driving with license plates reserved for wounded Nevada war veterans.

Sources close to the case and documents supplied to the Review-Journal confirmed that Jacob R. Cruze, 53, was cited Sept. 23 by a Las Vegas police detective on the FBI's Special Task Force for illegally possessing Purple Heart license plates and driving without a license, which had been revoked for nonpayment of child support.

The case was referred to the U.S. attorney's office almost three weeks ago.

Three tickets were issued to Cruze stemming from an investigation into public appearances he made in which he wore Army uniforms displaying the rank of colonel and ribbons and medals of valor that authorities suspect he never earned, including the Army's second-highest award, the Distinguished Service Cross.

The tickets to Cruze were for falsification of documents, driving with a revoked license and driving with an illegal license tag.

Detective Jack Clements, who conducted the probe, questioned Cruze in the parking lot of a Maryland Parkway coffee shop before driving to Cruze's house at the Las Vegas Country Club, where Purple Heart license plates and military awards were confiscated.

"He was calculating and non-apologetic even when he was busted," said Bill Anton, past regional director of the U.S. Army Ranger Association and current vice president of the Special Forces Association Chapter 51 in Las Vegas, who lodged the complaint against Cruze.

"I feel violated," Anton, a retired Army lieutenant colonel from the Vietnam War, said in a telephone interview Sunday.

"We expect Mr. Cruze to be charged and prosecuted for the egregious display and in-your-face attitude for wearing the uniform and decorations of our United States Army, which include the nation's second- and third-highest awards for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star and Purple Heart medals," Anton said.

Cruze hung up the phone when he returned a call last week to the Review-Journal and was asked about his colonel rank and military career. Later, he was unavailable at his Flamingo Road office, where he works as a registered nurse.

Clements deferred to the FBI in Las Vegas to comment.

On Friday, an FBI spokesman, Special Agent Todd Palmer, said he couldn't comment on the investigation into Cruze but said, "Any case we investigate is going to be turned over to the U.S. attorney to see if it has merit and rises to the level of federal prosecution."

A U.S. attorney spokeswoman in Las Vegas, Natalie Collins, said Cruze had not been charged, and she would not deny or confirm that he is under investigation.

Such crimes, referred to as "stolen valor," are a violation of the federal law that makes it illegal for people to wear any U.S. military rank, award or decorations that they did not earn. The most serious violation, displaying the Medal of Honor, carries a fine of $100,000 and up to a year in jail, said Tom Cottone, an FBI special agent in New Jersey who has made stolen valor arrests.

The Cruze case "is a clear- cut violation," said Cottone, who had consulted Anton about the case.

Cruze raised the suspicions of former Army Rangers who were attending an annual conference in late June 2004 at the Riviera. He was photographed wearing a dress-blue uniform bearing a colonel insignia and numerous ribbons and medals on his jacket. When Cruze was asked about his military career, Anton said, his comments didn't fit with events, locations and dates of military operations.

In May, Cruze spoke to fifth-graders gathered for a career day event at Eisenberg Elementary School, where he wore a green Class A Army uniform and a display of ribbons, said a source with knowledge of Cruze's appearance but who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The POW Network, a tax-exempt nonprofit education organization in Skidmore, Mo., helped the former Rangers.

A resume posted by Cruze with a nursing organization says he served in Vietnam from June 1969 to September 1970 as a combat medic and earned the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Cross of Galantry, Soldiers Medal and Army Distinguished Service Medal.

But records obtained by the POW Network under the Freedom of Information Act from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis show that Cruze never fought in combat and received no awards or decorations.

Instead, he is listed as an Army reservist from July 21, 1988, to Jan. 3, 1994, who served on inactive status as a clinical nurse for a hospital unit in Phoenix.

Cruze's resume states that he holds bachelor's and master's nursing degrees from Arizona State University and UCLA, respectively, but according to the Nevada State Board of Nursing, his active nursing license is based on a degree from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.

A Web site that Cruze posts for his fly-fishing guide service describes him as "a retired USA Colonel," and he is listed on a 2003 Community Bank account statement as "Col. Jacob R. Cruze."

POW Network researcher Mary Schantag said the U.S. attorney's office has routinely declined to levy charges in stolen valor cases because they have low priority compared with cases involving terrorism, stolen identities and domestic violence.

"This stuff is just so, so wrong," she said. To the real war heroes, "it's a tragedy."

"These guys have earned their medals, spilled their blood to protect our freedoms, and these phonies have stolen the integrity, the honor, the respect that they have earned," she said.

"But they're not stealing the nightmares, and they're not stealing the pain. They go through life unscathed."