"Grieving Parents" Indicted For Fraud After Son's Suicide

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 2, 2015

In August of 2011 Oregon Live featured the suicide of Matthew Brennan and what happened The life and death of an Oregon Guardsman illustrates a national tragedy including his baptism in Iraq.

Matt Brennan asked to be baptized during his deployment and a military chaplain performed the rite. Brennan kneels before sandbags stacked high to shield troops from shrapnel from incoming mortars and rockets.

How this story ended has not been written yet. His parents have been accused of not only having a fake charity in his name, but also taking money from another family member, a disabled parent.

There have been a lot of charities popping up after people gained attention from the press. A few have been trying to do the best they can but this story just goes to show that just because people gain attention that doesn't mean they should gain your money.

With the growing number of bills passed by Congress and charities popping up all over the place, you'd think that the number of lives lost to suicide would have gone way down but as Congress gets on more bill tied to another suicide, there is a section in Matt's story that shows exactly how much worse it has all gotten for our troops and veterans.

It's not clear just how much more likely a person is to kill himself if he's served in the military. But the rate of suicides in all branches of the service is as much as 3.2 times higher than the general population, according to independent studies and annual reports by each branch. Admiral Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, declared last year that the military faces a suicide "crisis." In the blunt phrasing of a 2010 Army report, "Simply stated, we are often more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy."

The rate of veterans committing suicide is now double the population and for younger veterans it is triple their peer rate.

The Army intensified suicide prevention in 2006, as it became clear the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were taking a heavy emotional toll. It produced reports, trained chaplains, appointed suicide prevention managers, conducted outreach programs, linked legal and medical databases, and sought to reverse the notion it's unsoldierly to admit mental and emotional distress. The Guard replicated many of the initiatives.

Still, following the report of 32 Army suicides in July, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent a letter to the Pentagon, saying the military hasn't moved quickly enough to adopt recommendations made last year by the commission that studied the suicide problem.

The numbers went up after this and 2012 broke the record, a year after this article came out.

In calendar year 2012, there were 319 deaths by suicide among active component service members and 203 deaths by suicide among reserve component service members (73 in the reserve and 130 in the National Guard).

Now that you know the background, read what these "grieving parents" are accused of doing. There are no words to express the depravity of their actions.

Happy Valley couple faces charity fraud charges
Michael and Maria Brennan were arraigned Jan. 29, 2015
KOIN 6 News
Staff
Published: February 2, 2015

They claimed the organization benefited veterans with post traumatic stress disorder, in honor of their late son Matthew, who committed suicide in 2011 at age 22.

Michael Brennan, left, and Maria Brennan in photos released

by the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, Feb. 2, 2015

HAPPY VALLEY, Ore. (KOIN 6) — A married couple faces 37 separate charges after a grand jury indicted them over alleged theft and fraud from a charity.

Michael Brennan, 51, and 46-year-old Maria Brennan were indicted for felony charges of first-degree theft by deception, theft of services, unlawfully obtaining public assistance and unlawfully using supplemental nutritional assistance.

Clackacmas County has been investigating this case for eight months, officials said. Both Brennans were arraigned January 29.

The case

In May 2014, Michael Brennan was arrested for allegedly siphoning funds into a fake veterans website, defrauding his disabled father-in-law and committing food stamp fraud, and was charged with three counts of theft by deception in relation to numerous alleged frauds.

He allegedly set up a website for a non-existent non-profit with his wife called “Saving America’s Heroes,” in which he solicited donations for the “Mathew M. Brennan Foundation.”
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