Fraud Suspected In New Mexico Man's Claim Of Sept. 11th Heroism; He received $650K Payout
Meanwhile, Doug Copp wants at least $1 million more to deal with 41 medical problems that he claims developed after he waded through ``toxic soup'' deep beneath World Trade Center rubble, the Albuquerque Journal reported in Sunday editions.
Copp, who has said he and a so-called death-detection device helped find as many as 40 bodies in the rubble, initially got support from two members of Congress, the newspaper and a state archaeologist before being selected for victim compensation.
The paper stayed with the story, however, reporting Sunday that it found evidence that not all Copp's claims are accurate.
Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who once praised Copp's ``most courageous work'' in one letter to the victim fund's administrator, now seeks a federal investigation.
``I am concerned that a fraudulent claim may have been processed and paid,'' Udall said.
Copp asks: ``So now is this going to come out that there's nothing wrong with me? That it's a total fraud? That it's bogus? That I went there drinking and sitting in the hotel and wiping dirt on my face and now there's nothing really wrong with me?''
If so, he said: ``That would be the most immoral, improper thing that I have ever heard of.''
Kenneth Feinberg, the special master of the victims' fund, who awarded the $649,885, said confidentiality rules keep him from speaking about Copp's claim.
It all began when Copp, proclaiming himself the world's most experienced rescuer, organized a search team from his home east of Albuquerque.
On Sept. 13, 2001, he flew to New York on a corporate jet owned by the Journal Publishing Co. and piloted by Journal Publisher T.H. Lang, who said Copp came recommended as a legitimate rescuer. The office of Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., obtained special Federal Aviation Administration clearance for the flight.
The Journal report suggests a nearly 20-year history of exaggeration and self-promotion by Copp with little evidence of real rescue work.
However, one of Copp's doctors said: ``For six days, Mr. Copp waded in a toxic soup, breathed toxic air, and had toxins smeared on his body surface. It is unlikely that anyone has ever in human history been exposed to as concentrated or complex a mixture of dangerous chemicals.''
On the other hand, New York Fire Chief John Norman said Copp's claim to have been the first to search collapsed subway tunnels and only one of four people to go underground is ``a fraud.'' Norman said Copp played no legitimate role in Ground Zero operations and lacked permission to be there.
Chase Sargent, an operations chief for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the Journal that Copp's Ground Zero rescue claims were ``a bag of lies.'' Sargent said he ordered Copp off the site.
Copp told the commission he spent ``a week several floors below Ground Zero.'' He said he went under Ground Zero six times, about eight to 10 hours total.
Former colleague Stephen Lentz, a New Mexico state archaeologist, said Copp spent only a few hours at Ground Zero during the entire two-week stay, and each time he shot videotape to sell to television.
Lentz, who had been writing a screenplay about Copp, acknowledges he overstated Copp's accomplishments because he ``wanted to help him with his bills.''
But he also said he saw Copp smear soot on his face to dramatize himself.
Rescue officials said Copp's death-detector device didn't work.
Two doctors who reviewed Copp's medical records for the Journal said they show neither serious injury nor total disability from a long list of ailments, including chest pain, blurred vision, dementia, fractured spine, coughing.
The doctors described Copp's most serious illness as mild lung restriction and said Copp, 52, is overweight, has mild asthma and is depressed.
Said Copp: ``I'm literally trying to stay alive. I haven't had a single day that hasn't been insufferable pain.''
