Posted on 09/08/2001 8:28:10 AM PDT by Texican72
LINDEN, Texas--Cass County sheriff's deputies attempted to serve warrants Thursday on a black woman who reported being abducted and assaulted by white men last week, but she was nowhere to be found.
Camille Fulton, 32, of Bivins, Texas, is named in two warrants--giving a false statement to a police officer and fabricating evidence, a felony. Her story included an allegation that the men carved the letters "KKK" across her chest during the attack.
"We went down to her residence today and she was not there," Chief Deputy Ronnie Fincher said Thursday afternoon. "We are being told she has not been there for several days but we know that is not the case. It would be better if she turned herself in as soon as possible."
Fincher did not speculate on Fulton's whereabouts. "It would be better if she turned herself in now," he said.
Texas NAACP officials say they have been in touch with Fulton by telephone and said she is terrified. Anthony Bond of the Irving, Texas, NAACP chapter said late Thursday that arrangements are being made for Fulton to turn herself in.
"The first step is to get her representation so that she can turn herself in to authorities and then bond her out," Bond said. "We believe she has been victimized by somebody and she is further being victimized by Cass County authorities. Our intentions are to get to the truth and see that the civil rights of Camille Fulton are respected."
Bond said authorities entered the family's home Friday in Bivins without a search warrant. "The family was traumatized. The authorities went room to room looking for her and she was not there."
The arrest warrants stem from an alleged incident Fulton reported to the Cass County Sheriff's Office on Aug. 30. She told investigators she was abducted near her home and held overnight by two men in a pickup. She further stated that the men wore sheets or pillow cases over their heads which were tied at the neck with a red string.
The following day, when she was reportedly released by her captors, Fulton was treated for several injuries at a local hospital.
Investigators began to cast doubts on Fulton's story Tuesday during a news conference. Later that day, after she was questioned by an FBI agent and a Cass County investigator, Fincher announced that Fulton had signed a statement saying she fabricated the whole story.
Also, Cass County authorities said they have obtained a signed statement from a man who said Fulton spent the night of Aug. 30 at his house. The man, who is white, was not identified.
Bond said Thursday night that Cass County officials have admitted that the white male has also given conflicting accounts of what happened.
"My question is, are they going to charge him with giving false statements, too," Bond said. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander. This case is far from being over."
Fulton has filed a complaint with the Texas NAACP, said Bill Glenn, the organization's regional director for North and East Texas. On Thursday, Glenn told the Gazette that the recantation statement is not in Fulton's writing, but that she did sign it.
"We are in the process of looking into her story. I'm not at liberty to talk about that," Glenn said Thursday. "We feel she filed a legitimate complaint based on what she has told us and what we've been able to find out. We saw some things that suggest we look further."
Glenn admitted there is a problem with Fulton's story "fitting together." But he believes it would be counterproductive for Cass County authorities to arrest her at this time.
"We have to see how these charges against her play out," Glenn said. "We would never encourage her to leave that jurisdiction (Cass County) nor would we assist her in doing so.
"We are not declaring her innocence and we have not washed our hands of her either."
Way overdue.
Aren't we all.
Yup, those arrest warrants just ain't what they used to be . . . .
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