{"id":25800,"date":"2023-07-29T07:21:38","date_gmt":"2023-07-29T11:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=25800"},"modified":"2023-07-29T07:21:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-29T11:21:38","slug":"carlee-russell-alabama-woman-who-faked-kidnapping-charged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/07\/29\/carlee-russell-alabama-woman-who-faked-kidnapping-charged\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlee Russell: Alabama woman who faked kidnapping charged"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Alabama woman who admitted to faking her own kidnapping has been charged over the hoax.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Carlee Russell, 25, faces two misdemeanours: one of false reporting to law enforcement and another of falsely reporting an incident.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The nursing student called police on 13 July claiming she saw a toddler in a nappy walking along a motorway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She returned home on 15 July, claiming she had been abducted by a man with orange hair and a woman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Last Monday she admitted in a statement issued through her lawyer that she had fabricated the whole story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At a news conference on Friday, the Hoover Police Department said Ms Russell had turned herself in that day and was released on $2,000 (\u00a31,555) bail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Her decisions that night created panic and alarm for the citizens of our city and even across the nation as concern grew that a kidnapper was on the loose,” Hoover Police Chief Nicholas Derzis said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He added that her story “opened wounds” for those whose loved ones were real victims of kidnappings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The police chief said he shares the community’s “frustration” that she is not facing more serious charges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I know many are shocked and appalled that Miss Russell is only being charged with two misdemeanours, despite all the panic and disruption her actions caused,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He also called on state lawmakers to revise the criminal code to add an “enhancement” charge for false reporting of a kidnapping or other violent crime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In the 13 July 911 call, Ms Russell claimed she had stopped driving when she saw a toddler walking on the side of the interstate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After that, she said, a man emerged from the trees, blindfolded her, drove her in a truck and held her captive at a tractor trailer where she was fed cheese crackers, investigators said last week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She claimed she was kidnapped for 49 hours, and eventually managed to escape by running through the woods to her home, according to police.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Monday, police read a statement from Ms Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, saying she was not abducted, nor did she see a baby on the side of the road.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She said Ms Russell did not leave the city during the hours of the alleged abduction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The statement added that Ms Russell had “made a mistake” and was trying to “address her issues”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She could face up to a year in jail and a $6,000 fine if found guilty, Mr Derzis said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Local prosecutors have handed over the case to the state attorney general due to the level of attention it has received.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We don’t see this as a victimless crime,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said, adding that his office intends to “fully prosecute” Ms Russell.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Alabama woman who admitted to faking her own kidnapping has been charged over the hoax. Carlee Russell, 25, faces two misdemeanours: one of false reporting to law enforcement and another of falsely reporting an […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,3],"tags":[3558,8480,9615,9620],"class_list":{"0":"post-25800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-usa","10":"tag-alabama","11":"tag-fake-kidnapping","12":"tag-hoover","13":"tag-hoover-police-department","14":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25800"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25803,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25800\/revisions\/25803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}