Fabricated Rape Story Cost Taxpayers More Than $17,000 In Police Work
PLANO, Ill. (CBS) -- A 33-year-old married mother of two sent investigators scrambling after she told them she was sexually assaulted by a man posing as a cop.
Police say it was a lie that cost taxpayers plenty. Now Annette Brown of Sandwich is charged with three felony counts of disorderly conduct.
The Kendall County Sheriff's Department put multiple detectives on the case after Brown said she was pulled over Tuesday by a man posing as a cop and sexually assaulted in a cornfield at gunpoint in unincorporated Plano.
Initially, police believed her.
"As the investigation progressed there came to a point where we wanted to re-interview" the alleged victim, Kendall County Sgt. Joe Jasnosz tells CBS 2's Marissa Bailey. "Some things just weren't lining up for us."
Janoscz declined to speak at length about the investigation, citing the pending charges against Brown. But he said the fabricated story cost taxpayers at least $17,000 dollars in overtime and man hours.
News accounts of the crime also sent shock waves through the far western suburbs.
"In a small town, it was scary," Sandwich resident Venida Hauser says.
Brown was in the hospital Friday. Once she's out, she'll be held on $10,000 bond.
It's likely that prosecutors will ask the judge to require Brown to pay back all the money the sheriff's department accrued for having to investigate the alleged crime.
