North Little Rock man sentenced for falsifying disability application, stealing over $91,000 from VA

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Department of Justice announced Thursday that a man from North Little Rock had been sentenced for submitting a falsified disability application to the Veteran's Administration.

30-year-old Darold Maxfield had received more than $91,000 in disability payments and has been sentenced to four months in federal prison.

Maxfield filed for disability benefits from the VA in October 2018, saying he sustained psychological trauma after he recovered the remains of a cadet who died in a land navigation exercise at West Point Military Academy.

Maxfield was enrolled at the United State Military Academy Prep School and was approved for $1,567 per month.

An alert on potential fraud with Maxfield's application was sent to the VA in May 2020 after the physician's signature from the disability benefits questionnaire was cut and pasted onto Maxfield's application from a different application.

After further investigation, it was found that three days after Maxfield enrolled at the United States Military Academy Prep School, a West Point Military Academy cadet died.

The cadet died during a field training exercise, but agents were not able to find any evidence that Maxfield was near the death of the cadet happened.

The two other cadets that found the dead cadet said they were the only two present.

"Today, this defendant was held accountable for falsely claiming to be disabled in order to steal taxpayer dollars from a program meant to benefit deserving service-disabled veterans," said Special Agent in Charge Kris Raper with the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General’s South Central Field Office. "The VA OIG is dedicated to ensuring the integrity of VA’s benefits programs and services. The VA OIG thanks the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their efforts in this case."

On Thursday, June 1, 2021, Maxfield was charged with in an indictment with theft of public money as well as making a false statement to a department or agency of the United States.

On Jan. 19, 2023, Maxfield pled guilty and was sentenced to four months in prison on each count to be served concurrently, three years of supervised release.

He has been ordered to pay $91,651.70 in restitution.