Charges: 'Marine veteran' given PTSD service dog never served in the military

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Nicholas Ken White, 46, is charged with theft by deception in Utah.
• White falsely claimed to be a Marine veteran and given a service dog.
• The service dog was rehomed to a true combat veteran after White's alleged deceit was discovered.

SANDY — A man who prosecutors say claimed to be a Marine veteran is accused of taking advantage of a Utah nonprofit organization that gives service dogs to combat veterans.

Nicholas Ken White, 46, who police say does not not currently have a known address, was charged Wednesday with theft by deception, a second-degree felony.

The SSGT Taylor Hoover Foundation was established to honor Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, of Utah, who was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 26, 2021 while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps.

"This organization provides services and funding to veterans, including the training and placement of PTSD service dogs to combat veterans free of charge," according to charging documents.

White claimed to be a Marine Corps vet who was involved in an operation near where Hoover was killed, the charges state.

"The foundation had provided a PTSD service dog, including training and transportation costs, to White based on his representations that he was a Marine Corps combat veteran. The dog was trained, then transported to Utah in January of 2025, where it was presented to White at the Gold Star Monument at the Sandy City Hall," charging documents state.

But prosecutors say the administrators of the foundation started finding holes in White's story and that he "eventually admitted … that he was not a veteran and had never been in the military," according to the charges.

The service dog was taken back four months later and rehomed to "an actual combat veteran," the charges state.

But police weren't through with their investigation and made inquires into whether White had ever served with any branch of the military and found no record of any service. When questioned by detectives, White "admitted that he had lied about serving in the military and admitted he had received the service dog from the foundation but claimed it was a house-warming gift," according to the charges.

But text messages with other members of the foundation made it clear the dog was being given to White because of his alleged military service, the charges state.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Pat Reavy

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Pat Reavy interned with KSL in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL or Deseret News since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.