Officials Say Retired Officer Lied About 9/11 Injuries

The U.S. military granted Navy Cmdr. Charles E. Coughlin a Purple Heart and the government awarded him $331,000 for neck and other injuries he claimed to have suffered when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Now government lawyers have concluded that Coughlin lied about his injuries -- and they are seeking to seize his $1 million house in Severna Park, his Mercedes-Benz and his minivan.

The U.S. attorney's office has filed a civil suit alleging that the now-retired commander falsely claimed he suffered "a partial permanent disability" after falling debris struck him on the head at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed.

In Coughlin's application for the compensation, according to prosecutors, the commander asserted that his injuries were so severe that he "was no longer able to perform simple tasks, including, among other things, hanging mirrors, installing curtains, painting, mulching, power washing and putting up Christmas lights." He claimed that he avoided activities "requiring abrupt turning of my head or raising my left arm above my shoulder for any length of time."

In fact, prosecutors contend, Coughlin continued to play lacrosse and basketball after Sept. 11 and ran in the New York City marathon, completing the course "in under four hours" two months after the attack.

Answering the door at his house Monday, Coughlin, 49, declined to comment, citing the pending nature of the case.

His lawyer, Andrew Jay Graham, said Coughlin denies the allegations. "We will fight their charges vigorously," Graham said. "We will resolve this in court. He did not lie at all and was honest and he has committed no wrongdoing."

The case is the third brought by prosecutors in the Washington area involving beneficiaries of the Justice Department's Victim Compensation Fund, established to assist victims of the terrorist attacks at the Pentagon, the World Trade Center and in Pennsylvania. No criminal charges have been filed against Coughlin, whose case was investigated by the Justice Department's inspector general's office.

Prosecutors in New York and New Jersey have filed similar cases, including one against a union painter who collected $1 million after claiming he suffered permanent injuries at the World Trade Center. In Coughlin's case, prosecutors want his house and cars because he used money from the victims' fund to obtain them.

Coughlin was inside the Pentagon when Flight 77 plowed into the building. He later told a magazine writer that he had started to flee, only to run back inside to help extinguish fires and evacuate Pentagon employees, actions that also earned him a Meritorious Service Medal.

"I have always been proud of my service to my country, but I now have a deeper sense of purpose for doing what I do -- protecting the freedoms and ideals every individual in this country enjoys," Coughlin told the writer from Irish America magazine in 2002, musing about how the experience altered his view of public service.

Three months after the attack, Navy Secretary Gordon England hosted a ceremony at the Pentagon to honor victims and survivors, including Coughlin. "Through the smoke and the flames, heroes rose to help their shipmates," the Navy secretary said. "When they found the lost shipmate these heroes said, 'Follow me.' When they heard a cry for help, these heroes said, 'I'm going back in.' "