I went to high school with this girl and I am not surprised at all that she did this and has no remorse. She was very naive and air-headed in high school. I hope she is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law but I do belive that if sued, her family will pay for her and I think they also have enough pull in the community to keep her out of jail.
On the evening local news, the mayor of Duluth is thinking about recouping the $60,000 spent looking for the woman via suing the family, or bringing up charges on her.
One of the tabloid TV shows, like Insider Edition, was offering $100,000 to pay for all the costs associated with the search efforts if the wayward woman would consent to an exclusive interview with them.
The sad thing is this girl was probably sleeping around in Vegas unless someone has a better idea of how she left with $140 in her pocket and stayed the weekend at The Treasure Island and still had enough money to get to Albuquerque? Sadly, her husband, who is a complete and utter moron, admitted on the news that he had never had sex with her. Like the saying goes, you snooze, you lose.
Perhaps what that means is that if the woman is convicted of all counts she's charged with, her family would fork over what it would take to make sure she didn't spend time in jail, especially if restitution is the main focus of the penalty accessed, but the woman herself can't come up with the money, thus her family would then get involved.
What they need is creative punishment. Force her to help the next time some kid in Georgia or Florida is kidnapped. Stick her out in the hot sun for days on end in the middle of the summer looking for this "kid" in some swamp (and if a gator eats her, fine).
Meanwhile, all unknown to her, there is no missing kid and she has been sent on a wild goose chase. Hire some local actors to play the sobbing parents, a chessey newscaster, etc.
Or do what I said for real when, quite sadly, what I said happens for real...
I kinda like that idea, Jason. A more realistic approach along those lines would be to have her work in a crisis center for missing people, people contemplating suicide, etc. Let this bubble headed bimbo know what it's like to have to deal with REAL tragedy.
Your idea about the crisis center isn't all bad and kind of what I was getting at. But, could you imagine her trying to talk somebody out of suicide? Hell, she'd drive a borderline candidate right over the edge. She would probably drive a mildly depressed person who just needs somebody to talk to to whacking themselves...
My question is can Duluth charge her with anything? Yes, she lied about being kidnapped 5 or 6 days after getting cold feet. I know she lied to the Albuqureque police about being kidnapped, but they washed their hands of her, plus they did not have much in the way of expenditures involved.
Who else did she lie to? Her husband and family? Didn't Duluth and the surround areas call off their search before she was "found"?
Trust me, I'm not trying to defend her, but I wonder what the city of Duluth can charge her with. Can they skip any criminal charges and sue her in a civil court?
I hope, one way or another, they make her life VERY uncomfortable for a VERY long time.
I don't, I just think she should be accountable for her actions, which includes apologies to the Hispanic community along with some form of financial restitution for the expenses she caused others to incur. She'll have to live with being an idiot the rest of her life.