Texas man indicted for Army officer ruse

? A man who was discharged from the Army after he allegedly stalked a female officer has been indicted on a charge that he pretended to be an officer and demanded pay that he was not entitled to.

When Roderick C. Wright II, 32, was arrested last week at Fort Leavenworth, officers found pictures of the female officer’s home in Kansas City, Kan., a loaded pistol, a stun gun, two sets of handcuffs, a night-vision device, a machete and a police emergency light, according to court documents.

Wright, whose hometown is Amarillo, Texas, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Wichita on one count of pretending to be a second lieutenant and demanding pay for the position.

According to a criminal complaint filed last week, Wright called the adjutant general’s office at Fort Leavenworth on July 13, saying he needed help getting paid after his graduation from Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga.

Wright claimed he had several problems with the finance office and said he had decided to report early to his next post in Oklahoma, where he was to attend Officer Basic Course, according to a criminal complaint signed by Special Agent Michael Parker with the Army’s Central Investigations Division.

Wright said when he tried to straighten out matters in Oklahoma, he was escorted off the post for impersonating an officer, according to the complaint.

Wright was told to go to the adjutant general’s office at Fort Leavenworth to work out the assumed problems with the military’s record-keeping system. When he went to the post July 18, he was granted a second lieutenant identification card after he presented paperwork and a check of an Army database showed he was an officer, according to the complaint.

Wright then allegedly went to the finance office and asked to be paid. A supervisor checked another Army database and learned Wright had been discharged from the Army on Feb. 10.

He was arrested, and authorities said they found letters showing he had been expelled from Officer Candidate School in January and discharged from the Army in February for misconduct, including allegations he was stalking a female officer candidate.

Wright gave authorities an address in Lenexa that turned out to be a hotel, where he hadn’t stayed since April, authorities said.