Tsarnaev's Sister Pleads Guilty In Counterfeiting Probe
BOSTON (CBS/AP) — A sister of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded guilty Tuesday to misleading a police detective in a counterfeiting investigation.
Ailina Tsarnaeva, 24, of North Bergen, New Jersey, entered the plea in South Boston Municipal Court.
Prosecutors say she failed to cooperate in a 2010 counterfeiting investigation. They said she picked up someone who passed a counterfeit bill at a restaurant and "lied about certain salient facts during the investigation."
Tsarnaeva will serve no jail time as long as she stays out of trouble for 30 days.
She will not be fined or charged any fees for the case. However, the guilty plea could affect her citizenship application.
Her defense attorney gave investigators the name of the person she was with during the incident and that led to prosecutors making a deal.
According to a police report in the counterfeiting case, officers were investigating the passing of a counterfeit bill by a group of people eating at an Applebee's restaurant in the South Bay Center in Dorchester, on April 16, 2010. A server saw the group leaving and wrote down their license plate number.
Police traced the car to Tsarnaeva at her family's Cambridge home. When questioned, Tsarnaeva said she did not know the names of the people she picked up from the restaurant, according to the police report. She also told police that she had not lied but "did not want to be a snitch," according to the report.
Tsarnaeva is facing separate charges in New York, where she is accused of threatening to "put a bomb" on a perceived romantic rival.
Federal prosecutors say Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, planted two bombs near the 2013 marathon finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 260. Tamerlan Tsarnaev later was killed in a shootout with police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial in January.
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