CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — A former officer who lied about being awarded a Purple Heart was found guilty Tuesday on six of seven counts.
On the heels of the verdict, the judge ordered that Shane Ladner be booked into the Cherokee County Jail.
After five days of testimony, the jury deliberated for 13 hours before reaching the verdicts.
The jury found Ladner guilty on six of the seven counts he faced, deciding he lied at the county tax commissioner's office when he obtained a Purple Heart license plate and to sheriff's detectives who investigated his claim that he had been awarded the medal.
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Ladner said he was wounded at the age of 19 in Central America and that he woke up in the hospital with a Purple Heart pinned to his pillow, but prosecutors called some of Ladner's former superior officers to the witness stand who testified it never happened.
Channel 2's Berndt Petersen got reaction from Ladner's wife, Meg Ladner, and the foreperson of the jury.
Meg Ladner lost a leg during a wounded veterans parade in Texas a few years back and it was shortly after that when questions surfaced about her husband's Purple Heart.
A sentencing date for Shane Ladner has not been set but prosecutors say he faces up to five years in prison for each count.