(Tribune News Service) — A Kentucky veteran accused of lying about his inability to work in order to get more than $125,000 in disability payments has been sentenced to six months in prison.

Jeremy Wayne Harrell, 43, also will be on home detention for six months, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

A jury convicted Harrell, of Shelbyville, on a charge of theft of government benefits.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs notified Harrell it intends to reduce payments to him to recoup a total of $130,777 he was accused of wrongly receiving, according to the court record.

Harrell founded Veteran’s Club Inc., a nonprofit that helps veterans deal with such problems as PTSD, traumatic brain injury, substance abuse and homelessness, according to its website.

The site says Harrell was in the U.S. Army for nine years, serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and studied business management after leaving the military.

Federal authorities said that Harrell claimed he was withdrawn, rarely left the house and wasn’t able to work, when in reality he worked 40 to 60 hours a week for Veteran’s Club.

The work included running the nonprofit, organizing events, managing thousands of volunteers, speaking at community events and meeting with business and political leaders, federal authorities alleged.

Those activities showed Harrell could in fact maintain employment, meaning he was ineligible for Individual unemployability benefits he received from 2019 to 2023, the government charged.

Harrell’s attorneys, Nicholas Mudd and John C. McCall, urged U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove to place Harrell on probation, pointing to his military service and work for veterans.

The Veteran’s Club board would have paid Harrell a salary of at least $100,000 a year, but he didn’t take pay because he wanted all the organization’s money to go toward helping veterans, his attorneys said.

More than 30 supporters sent letters to the court lauding Harrell’s character and his work to help others.

“Jeremy is a man of faith, compassion, love, integrity and has such a genuine passion for veterans and first responders,” Melissa Smith, who operates a counseling service, said in a letter.

However, the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Chapman, said Harrell engaged in “numerous falsehoods” that showed he intended to defraud the Veterans Administration, and took money intended to benefit veterans who really couldn’t hold down a job.

“That element of Harrell’s character is one of the most aggravating parts of this case: Harrell put himself out in the world as a champion of veterans, yet, in reality, he was deceiving the VA and stealing from his fellow veterans,” Chapman wrote.

Van Tatenhove sentenced Harrell on Dec. 9.

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Crime and courts