Jim Stokes, Lawrence's veterans' chaplain, led a crowd of 500 people in prayer last month at a Veterans Day event in the city's new stadium. A perennial candidate for office, Stokes recently won a seat on the Lawrence School Committee, touting his 20 years in the US Marine Corps.
Now city officials are saying Stokes lied about his military service.
Mayor Michael J. Sullivan said yesterday that Stokes never served in the military.
"If I were Jim Stokes, not only would I not take office, I'd be moving out of state," said Sullivan, who had introduced him at the Veterans Day event.
Stokes, 65, who vowed last week to take office despite his criminal record and questionable military history, did not return phone calls to his home yesterday.
Last week, Stokes said his lawyer advised him not to speak about his military record. He declined to identify his lawyer.
Stokes has come under fire in recent weeks, since the Globe reported that the military had no record of his service. The Globe also reported that Stokes served two short sentences in jail in 1964 and 1986, for larceny and forgery. Sullivan said the city attorney is investigating whether Stokes can be charged with election fraud.
Shortly after he was elected in November, city officials conducted a criminal offender record check on Stokes after he volunteered to play Santa Claus in a holiday celebration at City Hall. City officials found his criminal record and told him he could not play the part.
Sullivan said Stokes's niece tipped off city officials about his lack of military experience.
Francisco Urena, the city's veterans' affairs director and a veteran of the war in Iraq, said he researched and found Stokes's record was littered with "abnormalities" and apparently forged.
The record contained inconsistencies in font, jumps in rank, and claims of medals won while working in a military warehouse, Urena said.
The National Personnel Records Center had no record of military service for a James Stokes with the same birth date and Social Security number, he said.
"I have concluded that there is no doubt [the record] is forged," Urena said yesterday.
Stokes won a School Committee seat after edging out incumbent Greg Morris.
