Dan Johnson's claim of PTSD Challenged

It appears that Rep. Dan Johnson's claim of PTSD was based on an event he was not part of. Did he use it as a symbol of honor or of suffering?

When fake veterans claim to have PTSD when they were not involved in any service, we call that "Stolen Valor and it is illegal when they use it for financial gain." 

When people claim PTSD, and tie it to something that did not happen to them, shouldn't there be a label for that one too?

In this case, Johnson claimed to be in New York and working as a Chaplain. He also collected Worker's Comp. Strange considering that we have so many police officers down here in Florida unable to collect, as well as firefighters, even though, there is plenty of evidence there were in fact there an on their jobs when the had to respond to the worst a human could do. 

This story is offensive on so many levels, it hits a huge population. Anyone with PTSD, for real, is offended. Anyone actually working in New York on 9-11 is offended. Any female is offended with the rest of the story.

As a Chaplain, the entire thing is offensive, but it does raise the question of what the legal remedy should be when someone uses the system falsely, while those with real injuries caused on the job, receive nothing.

Kentucky lawmaker who spun history of heroics ends life in suicide 
Denver Post
Adam Beam
December 14, 2017

Timothy D. Easley, The Associated Press

Kentucky State Rep., Republican Dan Johnson addresses the public from his church on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, regarding allegations that he sexually abused a teenager after a New Year’s party in 2013, in Louisville, Ky. Johnson says a woman’s claim that he sexually assaulted her in 2013 has no merit and he will not resign.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky lawmaker’s resume included enough material for an award-winning memoir: He was a peacekeeper at the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, a White House chaplain to three presidents and a 9/11 first responder who gave last rites to hundreds of people at Ground Zero.

But Republican Dan Johnson’s carefully crafted history crumbled this week following an extensively reported story from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. The story tore down his claims and portrayed him as a con man whose deceptions propped up his ministry of a church of outcasts in Louisville and hid a sinister secret: a sexual assault allegation from a 17-year-old girl.

On his financial disclosure forms, Johnson listed his only source of income as workers compensation from the state of New York. He said that money was from injuries he sustained while working as a chaplain immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City. But the reporting center, after a seven-month effort, could find no evidence that Johnson was in New York that day. 

In a Facebook message posted hours before his death, Johnson hinted that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder relating to what he witnessed in New York, details that he shared with friends through the years, including Republican state Sen. Dan Seum.

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