Posted on 05/03/2005 9:35:59 AM PDT by MikeEdwards
So your numbers of this happening are down from "thousands" to "a bunch." Something tells me this isn't exactly an epidemic.
I've just been through two weddings since both our daughters got married in the last year and a half. Everyone required large desposits, and the place where the reception was held wanted periodic installment payments in ADVANCE, and I haven't heard anyone mention if that was the case here.
Our receptions, flowers, limos, and photographers were FULLY PAID more than a week in advance. If someone didn't show up at the reception, that was our loss. (Don't let me forget to mention the cost of the gowns and fittings, etc.)
This girl did not want to marry this guy, and she still doesn't, regardless of what he thinks.
She committed an incredibly public false 911 offense, and if she isn't punished, what do you tell the next person who does it? It's okay, as long as you're upset? 30 days in jail, one year probation. She won't chuckle at that, nor will anyone else. But it won't ruin her life, either.
" I think that law enforcement does a respectable job of probing the complaint before going off."
I agree. My semi tongue in cheek was directed at the bosses who decided to be PC and absolve Jennifer of any culpability, not towards those doing the heavy lifting in the field.
None of us would dare do what Jennifer did , because we know that we would be facing legal consequences.
Whether we are planning a wedding or having a bad day.
I'd like to see a similar case where there was a legal penalty. None has been cited. If it is a slam dunk, like Seiler was, the DA will file charges in the next two weeks. Seiler was charged for the second search, not the one for her. The second search is Seiler's case was for a phantom abductor.
I don't think I'd be facing legal charges for skipping town and making an appearance change in the process. If I don't abandon any legal obligations in the old town, what are you gonna charge me with? P.S. I don't want you to look for me, but you have to figure that out for yourself.
" I don't think I'd be facing legal charges for skipping town and making an appearance change in the process. If I don't abandon any legal obligations in the old town, what are you gonna charge me with? "
Why don't you be the Freeper test case and pick up the phone and report a bogus interstate kidnapping .
And when they roust the FBI agent on call to come in at midnight and question you-waste his time and lie to him for a couple of hours.
We look forward to your report.
It may be tough to accept, but cases are actually handled on a case-by-case basis. That means the facts of the case sitting on the other side of LEO's desk are considered. So let's check the fact on THIS case (and see why I don't qualify):
Sure, it's a judgement call. But I'm not out the effort of the search in Georgia, the missing person has been located and is safe.
Are you saying that you, faced with that fact pattern (and your jurisdiction being ABQ), would charge the person with a FELONY the crime of lying about the abduction? After the person has recanted the lie and before your police force has initiated the abductor search? If so, you're a literalist on statutory application, and your case is apt to be lost. You'll have the expense of prosecuting the case, and not much liklihood of success.
Oh. My report. I send her home with well wish, and thank my lucky stars I'm not on the Duluth PD for this case.
Here are a few cases turned up with a google of "false report" abduction. I'd say these cases are more apt to warrant some serious charges than Wilbanks "phony abductor story" is.
Whatever rule "we" make, think of as being equally applied in similar fact patterns.
I think what Wilbanks did was rotten. What I don't find agreeable is making any of her actions into crimes, tempting as that may be. She'll get hers by way of social diminution. I doubt she'll "do the right thing" and apologize, or that she'll offer to compensate for the wasted effort her disappearance caused.
I still wonder if there isn't more to come out. Specifically, if her beau didn't know all along she was safe. That would REALLY change the legal issue in Georgia, but not in ABQ.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 9:14 AM CDTThat second one was a short lived lie, similar to Wilbanks. But damn, sounds like he did a bucnh of other stuff that was dropped, like arson, and attempted insurance fraud.
TAHLEQUAH - The alleged abduction of a 17-year-old girl last week turned out to be a false report, authorities said Monday.Cherokee County Chief Investigator Jason Chennault said Muskogee PD Detective Greg Martin told him the girl recanted her story. She had filed a report with both agencies, claiming she was abducted by three black men in a dark-colored sport utility vehicle in Cherokee County near the Fort Gibson Dam and taken to Muskogee, where she was gang-raped in an abandoned house.
"She told the Muskogee police she ran away and went to Muskogee," Chennault said. He said the girl admitted to Muskogee police that she had sex with a man while in Muskogee. He was unable to bring her back to Cherokee County, so his friends agreed to bring her back in exchange for having sex with her.
Chennault said he's sent a copy of the report to the district attorney's office. "It is a crime to falsely report a crime," he said. "I don't want to scare someone out of filing a report if they have a legitimate crime to report, but they need to know they can be prosecuted for filing a false report."
It's not known whether the girl will be charged with filing a false report.
Tahlequah Daily Press---
February 2, 2005
Motel owner pleads guilty to attempting to file false reportTRAVERSE CITY - A local businessman who faked his own robbery and abduction pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
Bruce Cox, owner of the Sands Motel in East Bay Township, entered his plea Tuesday morning in 86th District Court to one count of attempted false report of a felony after he faked his own disappearance last month. He told police he planned to make his suicide look like a homicide so his family could collect insurance money.
The incident occurred Jan. 9 after his wife reported to police that he had not returned home the night before. Troopers found the motel's business office ransacked and the owner's vehicle missing.
Cox, who appeared in court with attorney Eric Phelps, told Judge John Foresman that he had attempted unsuccessfully to take his own life Jan. 8. When he returned to the motel the next day, he lied to officers at the scene, telling them he had been robbed and kidnapped.
"I was scared and I made a false report," he told Foresman. "I basically told them I had been robbed and that someone had taken me. I was scared."
In exchange for his plea, the Grand Traverse County prosecutor dropped two felony charges, including false report of a felony, a four-year charge, and arson of personal property, punishable up to five years.
County attorney charges girl who reported false abductionDang. THere are lots more of them. False abduction stories are more common than I thought. Anyway, comapre what some of these twits got for their crimes, and compare their crimes with the consequences of Wilbanks' phony abductor story. She recanted pretty quick, and I don't theink "the community" was ever put on the lookout for a blue van, etc.
Posted: 9/10/04Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom announced that his office has filed a charge of falsely reporting a crime (a misdemeanor) against a 15-year-old Inver Grove Heights girl in connection with a false report of an abduction and attempted sexual assault reported to the Inver Grove Heights police earlier this month.
On Aug. 2, 2004, a 15-year-old girl reported to Inver Grove Heights police that she had been walking on a city street when three men drove by in a vehicle. She claimed the vehicle stopped and one of the men got out and forced her into the back seat of the vehicle, slapped her, attempted to pull up her shirt and tried to remove her sweatpants.
She claimed she kicked and punched this individual and was able to get away, and the vehicle drove off. Following up on the report, Inver Grove Heights police again interviewed the alleged victim who ultimately admitted that she made up the story and lied to police.
http://www.thisweek-online.com/2004/september/10av_false.html
[The police has alerted the town, and the police had to "recant"]
---
(New York -WABC, March 28, 2005) -- The attempted abduction of a child turned out to be a hoax. The story, at first, was chilling: A reported attempted kidnapping, accounts of a shady man in a van.
We're told child protective services is now involved in this investigation. So far no criminal charges have been filed.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_032805_abductionhoax.html
Not condoning what she did. Just trying to be a realist with regard to how the law handles these cases.
That pretty much tells us all that you don't have the sense that God promised to a mule when you can't differentiate between Tawana Brawley and this ditzy bit...
Personally, I don't give a fig one way or another. After this response, my interest in what's her name has officially evaporated. But you're welcome to hold your grudge and continue your comparisons to a flaky woman and a girl who conspired in a fraudulent hate crime case. Go for it.
I'll go light on her. 1.Make her pay for all the expenses of searching for her, but not for the media. The media made money off the story. 2. Make her wear a clown suit for a year.
But how many M-1 tanks could they have bought for what those 28 bridesmaids dresses costs?
Really. We need to have our priorities straight.
She lied to the FBI. Isn't that the same thing Martha did? And she is still in a bracelet.
Whatever. You've already proven you can't argue worth a lick without using personal attacks. Not to mention that if your argument that irrational people shouldn't be punished were put into effect, it would pretty much empty the jails. But go ahead and pretend how morally superior you are to the rest of us! Take a bow!
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