Dan Crowley
A 25-year-old Easthampton man accused of lying about his military service to get off probation early pleaded not guilty to perjury, forgery and other charges Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court.
Christopher S. Hodges, of Ballard Street, was ordered held on $5,000 bail and is due back in court Sept. 11 for a violation of probation hearing and on Oct. 23 for a pretrial hearing. He was indicted by a grand jury July 29 on one count of forgery and two counts each of written perjury and misleading a probation officer.
Hodges, who formerly served with the National Guard in Arizona and Massachusetts, is under the supervision of the Eastern Hampshire District Court Probation Department in Belchertown and is scheduled to remain on probation until November 2014. His probation is related to his arrest on breaking and entering and larceny charges in Hadley in 2012.
Hodges submitted motions on two occasions in June to end his probation early. On one occasion, he claimed to be a lieutenant who was scheduled to be deployed in 3½ years and needed to be off probation for at least three years before being deployed, according to a statement of probable cause by Massachusetts State Police Detective Corey J. Mackey. He is assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office and investigated the case.
At the time, Hodges also allegedly provided a forged certificate of release or discharge from active duty and a letter purportedly from Maj. Gen. L. Scott Rice, who is adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard stating that Hodges is a second lieutenant “set to deploy ‘back’ to Afghanistan,” according to court documents. The letter had no letterhead or signature and was marked by erroneous capitalization, punctuation and spelling.
Rice was interviewed and provided a sworn affidavit during the investigation, stating that he never drafted any letter on behalf of Hodges, nor did he authorize any of his staff to do so, according to court documents.
The documents Hodges provided on his behalf also included several decorations that he either did not earn or were ever awarded, including the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Purple Heart and the Army Presidential Unit Citation, among others, according to court documents.
In late June, Hodges filed a second motion seeking a travel permit. In a written statement to the court, he allegedly stated his probation officer was in favor of his early release from probation but that Robert Ryan, probation chief in Eastern Hampshire District Court, had denied his request.
The DA’s office began investigating the case after the court’s probation department expressed concerns about the validity of Hodges’ claims and documentation.
As part of the investigation, a lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts Army National Guard reviewed Hodges military record. The record showed that he was declared Absent Without Leave (AWOL) in 2010 while assigned to the Arizona National Guard, which resulted in his discharge on Nov. 24, 2010. He then re-entered the National Guard in Massachusetts on April 30, 2012, and was discharged after a week for “unsatisfactory performance,” according to Mackey’s statement of probable cause.
“Records show that from that date (May 7, 2012) to present, Hodges has not been on active duty nor has he been an active member of the reserve component of the National Guard,” Mackey wrote. “ … Additionally, Hodges has not been deployed, and is not due to deploy (discharged in 2012), to Afghanistan.”
Northwestern First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne, who is prosecuting the case, said Hodges could face penalties ranging from 2½ years in a county jail to 20 years in state prison on the charges. He also noted that several people involved in the case happen to be military veterans, including Ryan, the chief probation officer in Eastern Hampshire District Court.
“Unfortunately for Mr. Hodges, he attempted to mislead a probation officer who just happens to be a veteran of the armed services,” Gagne said. “He just chose the wrong folks to try to dupe.”
Source: gazettenet
