LAVONIA, Ga. — A woman serving as a Veterans of Foreign Wars commander in Georgia was sentenced to prison on charges of impersonating a military veteran, forgery and first-degree cruelty to children.
Gabrielle Beutler pleaded guilty Wednesday in Franklin County, Georgia, after she lied on the paperwork she submitted to join the Lavonia VFW, WYFF reported.
Beutler was also accused of altering documents so that she would be promoted within the VFW, and used false documentation to get Purple Heart license plates for her vehicles, The Hartwell Sun reported. Beutler allegedly told people that she had been injured by an improvised explosive device while serving in Afghanistan and was a Purple Heart recipient.
“This individual had, in fact, altered and fabricated information on her form,” Lavonia Police Chief Bruce Carlisle told WYFF. “She reported she had been injured in the military to the extent of losing a leg in the military, when in fact, I believe it was determined she had never made it out of basic training.”
Beutler was sentenced to two years in prison, to be followed by 15 years of probation, and was also ordered to pay restitution, the Athens Banner-Herald reported. The amount of restitution has yet to be determined.
Prosecutors said that while acting as post commander of the VFW, Beutler lied about her daughter having terminal cancer, going so far as to shave the 9-year-old’s head, WYFF reported.
“The saddest thing about this is she had her own child convinced she was a cancer victim,” Carlisle told WYFF. “So far as to do check-ins on Facebook and social media at different cancer treatment facilities.”
“The little girl still loves her mother very much, but doesn’t realize the magnitude of the things her mother did to her for so long,” Northern Circuit District Attorney Parks White told the Athens Banner-Herald.
The VFW paid Beutler for her employment, but no other money was reported missing from the organization, The Hartwell Sun reported.
In March, the Toccoa VFW post held an event to raise money for cancer treatments Beutler said her daughter needed, The Hartwell Sun reported. According to the newspaper, a social media post made by Beutler indicated more than $4,500 was raised.
Hart Events, which helped organize the event, posted on Facebook saying “The person we organized this event for falsely claimed her daughter having cancer and falsely claimed documentation of who she was. This lady was a con artist.” In the post, the company said it is working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to recover the money.
An investigation into Beutler began after some VFW members, including a Lavonia police officer Jonathan Merck, became suspicious about her military background when facts about her service and injury “didn’t add up,” the Athens Banner-Herald reported.
Merck told WYFF that when Beutler was arrested, it was done with a set of handcuffs belonging to his friend, who served with the military police and was killed by a bomb in Iraq.
“I only saw it fitting that someone who claimed to be a Purple Heart recipient and combat veteran and a security forces officer in the Air Force to be handcuffed with handcuffs that belong to an actual American hero.”
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