Posted on 05/01/2005 11:28:04 AM PDT by SkyPilot
DULUTH, Ga. - A prosecutor said Sunday that he wants to review whether the runaway bride-to-be who admitted she made up a kidnapping story should be charged for making false statements to the police.
Jennifer Wilbanks returned to this tight-knit town on Saturday after a cross-country bus trip took her through Las Vegas, Nev., to Albuquerque, N.M., as hundreds of volunteers searched for her.
She initially told authorities she had been abducted while jogging, but eventually admitted her kidnapping story was fabricated and she had run away because she had cold feet for her wedding, which was planned for Saturday.
Police initially said there would be no criminal charges, but Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said Sunday that he was still looking into the matter.
"I think it's really going to depend on the circumstances on how this was done," Porter said. "If there's criminal responsibility, that's something I have to do something about."
Porter said the 32-year-old woman could face a misdemeanor charge of false report of a crime or a felony charge of false statements. The misdemeanor carries a penalty of up to a year of jail time and the felony carries a maximum of 5 years of prison.
The charges potentially would stem from Wilbanks reporting her kidnapping story on the phone to Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher, Porter said, adding that he had no jurisdiction over the woman's 911 call to Albuquerque authorities.
Members of Peachtree Corners Baptist Church, where she was scheduled to be married, said prayers and expressed concern on Sunday for her and her fiance, John Mason.
But some residents of this Atlanta suburb felt betrayed by what turned out to be an elaborate hoax. Volunteers had searched woods and alleys, crawled in sewage drains and stayed up late looking for Wilbanks.
"I'm glad that she's alive and OK, but it was a dirty trick," said Louise McCoy, waiting in line at the Duluth post office Saturday — the same day Wilbanks was supposed to be married in a lavish ceremony that included 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen.
More than 100 officers led a search that involved several hundred volunteers, including many wedding guests and members of the bridal party.
A Wisconsin college student who faked her own abduction last year and turned up curled in a fetal position in a marsh was ordered to repay police at least $9,000 for their search. She pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of obstructing officers and was given three years' probation.
Wilbanks returned Saturday by plane to Atlanta, where she was picked up in a squad car on the tarmac — with a towel covering her head — to avoid the media.
There were no family members at the airport to greet her, but her stepfather and an uncle had flown to Albuquerque to escort her home, authorities said.
Wilbanks decided to call her fiance and police with the story about the kidnapping when she found herself broke in Albuquerque, according to authorities.
In her 911 call, Wilbanks sounds frantic and confused, telling an operator she was kidnapped from Atlanta by a man and a woman in their 40s who were driving a blue van. Through sobs, she tells the dispatcher they had a small handgun.
At one point, the operator asks if Wilbanks knows what direction her captors went after dropping her off in Albuquerque.
"I have no idea. I don't even know where I am," she says.
Moments after the word came Saturday that Wilbanks fled town and hadn't been kidnapped, most of the police who'd been guarding her house since Tuesday night pulled away. Fliers with Wilbanks' picture were pulled down from local store windows. Some residents removed yellow ribbons they'd put on their mailboxes.
After police reported the hoax, the mood outside Wilbanks' home went from jubilant to somber. Family members ducked inside and the blinds were drawn. They later expressed relief that she was safe.
"Sure, we were all disappointed, maybe a little embarrassed, but you know what, if you remember all the interviews yesterday we were praying, 'At this point let her be a runaway bride,'" said the Rev. Alan Jones, who was to perform the wedding. "So God was faithful. Jennifer's alive and we're all thankful for that."
Wow, I hadn't heard that she made the whole thing up. Not only did she commit a crime by calling 911 with a false report, look what she did to her fiance, family and friends.
She's in a world of hurt now, and it's all her fault. All she had to do was either talk to her fiance, or her pastor about her concerns.
Who paid for the wedding? Who paid for the 14 bridesmaids dresses, and their excessories? Who paid to rent tuxes? My God, her parents won't be able to show their faces in town, judging by the reaction. I hope her fiance asks for the ring back, and is able to move on. He has been humiliated as well :(
She has known Mason for years, and been engaged for two, and they were shackin' up. And still she wasn't sure she wanted to marry him? Sounds to me like perhaps neither one of them is really ready to marry. I'd also flunk the pastor on his marriage counseling exam.
Kind of reminds you of the scene in "Blazing Saddles" in which the sheriff threatens to "murder himself," diverting attention from the fact it is, in fact, a suicide.
One of the problems is that she's created a potential "cry wolf" situation. The next time something like this happens to a gal, there's going to be one of these "hmmmmm wonder if she's just got cold feet" scenarios, and therefore the situation may not taken as seriously as it would have before this dim-bulb's actions.
Seems I heard that her daddy was the Mayor (or ex-) down there -- he may have some strings to pull!
Never said this idiot wasn't unselfish, and ill mannered...
You just can't prosecute that type of bad behavior.
The way she should have done it was just by simply calling off the wedding.
I think if she's charged anywhere it'll be New Mexico where she told the 911 operator she was kidnapped wouldn't she ?
GA DA's just pissin in the wind IMHO.....
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Exactly. Going on a bus trip is not a crime even in GA. Hard to see how lying to the police in N.M. could be a crime in GA?
Certainly going on the trip and not telling anyone ended up costly for the local community, but what is the crime? Maybe the local community could sue her for the tort of fraud if she discared clothing and left some hair if any of that stuff they found was hers. But she did not report a crime so they jumped to the conclusion so I don't even see a criminal fraud.
If she planted the cuttings of her hair and the sweatsuit to make it look as if she'd been abducted, and if she left all her ID and her cell phone and engagement ring etc. behind deliberately (taking along only her pre-bought bus ticket and the key to the locker at the bus station holding a change of clothes and another wallet), then she ought to be judged guilty of falsifying a crime or something like that.
In a town the size of Duluth, the humiliation her family (including the one she will form if she marries now) suffered will be a part of the archives until three days after Judgment Day -- take it from one who has plenty of family in the South! That will be a better and more deserved punishment than anything the law can hand out. Imagine being her grand child and hearing everyone at the family reunions saying, "Oh, I remember her, that was the wild girl that staged her own kidnapping and got the whole town angry at her and cost her parents $200,000 etc. back in '05..."
If you disagree, sorry about that.
Why is nobody asking why it was she chose to do this?
totally agree with you
"may face charges"
'Ain't never gonna happen. I think I heard mommie and daddy are too well connected.
I guess because to me, it doesn't matter. Whatever problems you have, hurting others is not the way to handle them.
Sorry, nothing illegal or punishable about buying a ticket and getting on a bus.
Now, if she had of staged it to look at though she had been kidnapped, like leaving a ransom note, etc., then yes, punish her.
Wonder if the wedding cake had been ordered. They can keep the deposit, ya know.
It's not illegal to just disappear.
No it's not. But it should warrant a civil penalty for the county to recoup the money it spent looking for her for the taxpayers that got rooked by this spoiled brat.
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