Charge and Guilty Plea
On May 18, 2007, a criminal complaint was unsealed in the United States District Court in Seattle, Washington, charging Macbeth with one count of using or possessing a forged or altered military discharge certificate and one count of making false statements in seeking benefits from the Veterans Administration. The complaint alleged that Macbeth posed as an Iraq war veteran and illicitly collected more than $10,400 in benefits.
On June 7, 2007, Macbeth pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. MacBeth was sentenced September 21, 2007, to 5 months in jail and three years probation.
On January 23, 2008, Macbeth posted on abovetopsecret.com "I am Jesse Macbeth, this my response to the world" in which he explains much of his background and history after being "fresh out of prison". He expressed that he had "wanted to get back at the army for the way they treated me in basic training". He stated that he was "muslim and have been most of my life" who grew up in Saudi Arabia. He joined the Army as "an american muslim proud of my country and wanting to make a difference" who could speak, read, and write Arabic, and was homeless at that point in his life. He complained of serious harassment as "all the other soldiers in my platoon took the quran off my bunk spit in it and threw it across the room" yelling "muslims dont belong in my army" and made him crawl like "the muslim dog I was" to get my holy book.
Read more about this topic: Jesse Macbeth
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