Jan 31, 2008 10:00 pm US/Mountain
Vet's Medical Marijuana Story Under Friendly Fire
Written For The Web By Rick Sallinger
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) ―
A CBS4 investigation has found a former Marine with a medical marijuana permit may have lied about his war injury.
Kevin Dickes is considering a lawsuit against Aurora police for more than $300,000. He claims police destroyed his marijuana after seizing it during a raid on his home.
Acting on a tip from a neighbor and carrying a warrant, Aurora police raided the home of Kevin Dickes in April 2007.
They entered Dickes' marijuana growing room and confiscated 71 of his plants, which were later placed in a police evidence locker. Several others were left behind.
The case was later dropped and what was left of the plants was returned when it was learned that Dickes was listed on the state registry to legally use medical marijuana.
He claimed to police and others he needs it to ease pain from a 1991 Gulf War injury. He even showed off his scar, claiming it happened in Kuwait while serving in the Marines.
CBS4 reporter Rick Sallinger asked Dickes how he was wounded. "Sharp metal from a grenade" was the reply. Dickes previously said it happened in Kuwait, but he told Sallinger it happened at Bahrain's international airport.
Former Gunnery Sgt. Rich Taylor disputes that. He was in Dickes platoon (1st Batallion, the 4th Marines). He knew Dickes and sent CBS4 pictures of him from back then, insisting the grenade incident never occured.
"It looks like he has an injury, however he didn't receive that injury during that deployment. He may very well rate that license, but he lied to get it in my opinion, and I didn't like that very much," Taylor said.
Military records CBS4 obtained confirm Dickes was most definately a Marine for 2 years and 11 months, receiving several commendations and exiting as a Lance Corporal.
Dickes told CBS4 he was injured when a prisoner of war committed suicide with a grenade, killing two others.
"Yeah, he had it around his belt. I had shrapnel on my leg and arm," he said.
That would seem to be a newsworthy event, but a search of news stories from the Gulf War period with the assistance of the archiving company Lexis-Nexis could find no reports of that. The Marine archives from Dickes' unit did not mention it, either.
Taylor claims that's because it never happened.
"I didn't like the idea of someone taking advantage of the current environment and situation in Iraq to garner sympathy to gain permission to do that kind of stuff," he said.
Combat injuries are often acknowledged by awarding the wounded a purple heart, but Dickes acknowledged he didn't receive one.
"No, I didn't. I got compensation 10 percent ... disabililty," he said. Former platoon member Rich Taylor responded in the following way:
"It looks like he has some kind of injury, however taking advantage of the system and lying to gain a license to do that kind of stuff is not what Marines do."
CBS4 asked the Veteran's Administration to supply information about Dickes' injury but were told he would need to agree. Dickes' attorney said he would think about it.
When CBS4 did not hear back, Sallinger and a photographer went to Dickes' home.
"I came over here in hopes we could clear up how you got injured. I can't find any record of it," Sallinger said.
"I'm not going to release my military record," Dickes said.
He did admit the scar he had previously shown us was actually from an operation he had after a snowmobile accident. Dickes still claimed he was injured in a suicide grenade attack.
Since then CBS4 News obtained military records for Dickes dated December 1991 that found him "unfit for duty." The reason stated was: "while on a ship ... he fell." Due to complications from that knee injury, a year after it occurred, he was dismissed from the service.
There's no mention of Kevin Dickes being wounded by a prisoner's grenade.
Dickes served his country as a Marine. He received an honorable discharge. But his story of why he needs medical marijuana stands in conflict with the U.S. military records that state why he had to leave the service.
Dickes offered a Veteran's Administration hospital card that says "service connected" and a stack of medical documents as proof he was injured by a grenade. He said while the documents did not indicate a grenade shrapnel injury, he was trying to obtain military records that could verify his story of how he was hurt.
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