A one-time cop at the center of a stolen valor controversy was arrested Thursday, Cherokee County authorities said. Former Holly Springs Police Officer Shane Ladner was accused of lying about his military background to get a tax-free Purple Heart license plate.
“Basically, our detectives discovered he was not a Purple Heart recipient,” said Lt. Jay Baker at the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.
It was the latest misfortune related to his controversial military claims to befall Ladner and his wife. Last fall, Meg Ladner lost her leg after a train hit their float during a Tribute to Military Heroes Parade in Midland, Texas. In all, 16 people were injured. Ladner and his wife were invited to participate in the parade because of his claim that he was twice wounded in Operation Just Cause, the 1989-1990 military campaign to capture Panamanian President Manuel Noriega.
On Monday, President Obama signed the latest version of the Stolen Valor Act into law, making it a crime to lie about military honors in order to get money, property or benefits.
Cherokee County detectives spent six weeks on the investigation, Baker said, even traveling to Fort Benning to check on Ladner’s Army record. He said they found no evidence to support Ladner’s claim of being twice wounded in 1990.
Ladner’s Texas-based attorney, Kevin Glasheen, sent a statement to reporters April 29 saying the former cop “was instructed to say that he suffered wounds during Operation Just Cause rather than when and where the events actually occurred because of the sensitive nature of the military’s involvement in drug interdiction in that region,” according to the Cherokee Ledger-News.
But Cherokee County detectives found no evidence to support such claims, Baker said.
Further, he said detectives found that Ladner’s discharge document, known as a DD-214, was apparently a fake. Ladner’s copy of the document showed he was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds suffered in combat. Military archive copies of Ladner’s discharge document do not show that citation, Baker said.