The woman who faked her own kidnapping in Alabama was found guilty and sentenced to a year in prison.
Carlee Russell, 26, was charged with falsely filing police reports for the hoax that caught national attention earlier this year.
A judge found Russell guilty at a municipal court trial on Wednesday, ordering her to pay $18,000 in restitution and spend one year in prison.
Russell drew national attention on July 13 after she disappeared off the side of a highway in Alabama.
Russell was on the phone with 911 moments before, reporting that she saw a child wearing a diaper running on the side of the road.
Russell returned to her parents’ home 48 hours later and claimed she was kidnapped by a man and a woman who used the child as bait.
She claimed the couple took naked photos of her, and held her blindfolded in the back of an semi-truck.
Investigators were unable to verify most of Russell’s story, and on July 24 she released a statement acknowledging it was a fabrication.
She was quickly charged with two counts of falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor charge.
‘Her decisions that night created panic and alarm for citizens of our city and even across the nation as concern grew that a kidnapper was on the lose using a small child as bait,’ said Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis.
‘We don’t see this as a victimless crime,’ said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. ‘There were significant hours spent, resources expended, as a result of this investigation.’
Municipal Judge Brad Bishop ended up giving Russell the maximum penalty of one year in prison, a move that has prompted her attorneys to immediately appeal the decision.
‘They’re trying to add some jail time, which we totally disagree with,’ her attorney Emory Anthony told reporters.
Anthony said that first-time offenders like Russell who are convicted of a Class A misdemeanor are generally not put in jail.
‘I think she understands what has happened,’ Russell said. ‘She has apologized for what transpired.’
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