Former longtime adjutant for the American Legion of Oklahoma David Austin Kellerman was sentenced to three years in prison last week for embezzling from former veterans.

Local veteran and American Legion member Larry Talbott was among those who submitted victims’ impact statements considered by Oklahoma County District Judge Timothy Henderson in making his sentencing decision.

“What is atrocious about Kellerman’s crimes is that he stole from veterans, some 18,000 members in the American Legion of Oklahoma,” Talbott, who serves as judge advocate for the state American Legion Department, wrote in his statement.

Kellerman, who continued to deny any wrongdoing, had requested probation with no prison time.

The sentencing hearing was the culmination of six years of investigation and three previous charges against Kellerman which were dismissed by prosecutors for various reasons, according to an Aug. 26 article in the Oklahoman.

Talbott said concerns about the financial operation of the American Legion actually began as early as 2008.

“We did not know exactly what was wrong, who had done it or when, just that things were not right and sought help as early as 2008 to unravel what turned out to be a long-term criminal enterprise,” Talbott wrote in his statement.

“[Kellerman’s] thirst for money and power started early, perhaps within 60 days of beginning work, when about $60,000 worth of Certificates of Deposit in an Edward Jones account in Prague disappeared, a stock account was sold and he began to seek ways to sell off the American Legion Children’s Home,” Talbott wrote.

Kellerman was sentenced after pleading no contest to only two embezzlement counts after prosecutors dismissed three others.

He was alleged to have sold loaned ceremonial rifles, kept $4,650 from the sale of a closed Legion post and embezzled from the Memorial Poppy Fund and a Legion bank account.

Talbott, who has been active and instrumental in pushing for the investigation and prosecution of Kellerman, wrote in his letter to the judge that Kellerman’s fraudulent activities “led to the American Legion of Oklahoma having its charter suspended and its daily operations taken over by the National Legion for almost a year, for which Oklahoma was assessed costs of $718,135.24 by the national [headquarters].”

Talbott said Oklahoma Legionnaires continue to pay on the promissory note for that debt.

According to the Oklahoman article, the American Legion estimated that as much as $1 million had been embezzled.

Henderson ordered Kellerman to serve 12 years’ probation after completion of his prison sentence, during which time he is required to pay $51,165 in restitution.

Kellerman’s attorney argued at his sentencing that Kellerman suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and is 100% disabled after killing an 11-year-old armed combatant in Somalia who ambushed Kellerman and other Marines on patrol.

One of the prosecutors responded that the vast majority of veterans who suffer from PTSD as the result of combat overseas do not “over and over violate the trust of their fellow veterans.”

In his letter, which included a number of attached documents as evidence of Kellerman’s activities, Talbott argued:

“The defendant should not be rewarded with leniency simply because he was skillful at covering his tracks for a decade while serving as the chief executive officer in charge of daily operations that were to serve his fellow Oklahoma veterans, nor should he be rewarded for his expertise at deceiving his comrades about his ten-year-long criminal empire.”

Talbott also wrote that a prison sentence for Kellerman would serve as a deterrent to others who serve in positions of “special trust and confidence” to not violate those arrangements but remain true to the trust originally placed in them by their employers and the members of the organizations they serve.