Former Lawrence official to plead guilty to falsifying war record

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

James F. Stokes, who resigned recently from the Lawrence School Committee after authorities arrested him for allegedly forging a Marine Corps discharge document, plans to plead guilty on Feb. 12 to two misdemeanor charges, according to the US attorney's office in Boston.

Stokes, who for years told people in Lawrence that he had been a Marine who had served in Vietnam in the 1960s, will plead guilty to presenting a forged discharge document to the city’s office of veterans services in November 2006, according to prosecutors.

He will also plead guilty to falsely claiming verbally in October 2007 to have been awarded a Purple Heart, said Assistant US Attorney Brian T. Kelly.

Stokes, 63, faces a maximum of one year in prison on each charge when he is sentenced by US Magistrate Judge Joyce L. Alexander in Boston. He appeared in court today for a hearing where Kelly disclosed Stokes's plans to change his plea to guilty.

He resigned from the School Committee, to which he had been elected in November, on Jan. 11. That was two days after federal agents and local police swooped in on a doughnut shop in Lawrence and arrested him.

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