Carlee Russell shamelessly smiled in a mugshot taken Friday as Alabama cops announced she’s staring down the possibility of a year behind bars for faking her kidnapping and lying to cops.
Russell, 25, turned herself on Friday and immediately bonded out, Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said in a press conference announcing criminal charges. She faces two misdemeanor counts that carry up to a year in prison and $6,000 in fines if convicted.
Derzis said he was disappointed cops couldn’t hit Russell with more serious charges, alleging she wasted the department’s resources, stoked fear in the community that a kidnapper was loose, and opened old wounds for families who actually had loved ones abducted.
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“As we know, actions can have consequences,” Derzis said. “I know many are shocked and appalled that Miss Russell is only being charged with two misdemeanors despite all the panic and disruption her actions caused. Let me assure you—I, too, share the same frustration, but existing laws only allow the charges that were filed to be filed.”
Derzis said he planned to lobby state legislators to pass legislation to allow prosecutors to come down harder on those who file false police reports.
Russell has already admitted that her elaborate story—that she was abducted by an orange-haired man and held in the woods for 48 hours after initially stopping to help a toddler found walking alone by an interstate—was a total farce. The admission came after her parents and boyfriend had insisted she’d “fought for her life” for those 48 hours.
Doubts almost immediately emerged about Russell’s disappearance when cops said they couldn’t find any sign of a missing toddler walking by the interstate, and her car—which she abandoned with her belongings—had everything still in it, except for snacks she’d just purchased at Target.
“Her decisions that night create a panic and alarm for the citizens of our city and even across the nation,” Derzis said. “Numerous law enforcement agencies, both local and federal, worked tirelessly to not only to bring Carlee home to her family, but to locate a kidnapper that we know now never existed.”
