GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — A man accused of pretending to be a veteran for more than 20 years said he had permission to assume the real veteran’s identity.
He told an investigator that while in California the two agreed to switch identities and exchanged documents in 1986 or 1987.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, an investigator for the Denver District Attorney’s Office obtained the information during an April 18 interview with Mark Mulcahy, 47, at the Garfield County Jail.

Mulcahy pretended to be David Keith Anderson, who had changed his name from David Ronayne. Anderson lived in California and died in a bicycle accident in 2006, according to an affidavit.

Mulcahy told the Denver investigator that he met Anderson in the early 1980s in San Jose, Calif. Anderson served in the U.S. Army from 1973-74. Mulcahy said Anderson had a problem with authority figures, couldn’t adjust and was thrown out, according to affidavits.

“Mulcahy indicated Anderson was all right with him assuming his identity,” an affidavit says. “Mulcahy admitted to living as Anderson since the late 1980s. … Mulcahy indicated he did not want to keep Anderson’s identity, but he felt trapped.”

In 2003 and 2004, Mulcahy received free gastric hernia surgery and other care worth $6,296 at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Denver by falsely using Anderson’s identity, affidavits say.

Mulcahy said he went to the VA hospital after injuring himself on a drilling rig and getting unsuccessful surgery in Glenwood. He said he was sorry and wished he never would have let his ex-wife talk him into it, an affidavit says.

His ex-wife said he also scammed to get prescription drugs for his friends, the affadavit says.

Mulcahy said his ex-wife handled intake at the VA hospital and forged some of the documents, according to an affidavit. He even told the investigator that he wanted to pay back the hospital bill “because he did not feel right about it,” an affidavit says.

Investigators believe Mulcahy became commander of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post in 2004.

Mulcahy, living in New Castle, was arrested Feb. 28. The 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office charged Mulcahy with seven felonies on March 19. Mulcahy is being held at the Garfield County Jail.