BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) -- Nearly a year after lying to the world that she had been abducted in Alabama, Carlee Russell has pleaded guilty and will not be facing jail time.
Russell, a nursing student whom the eyes of the nation looked on when she disappeared for two days in Hoover last summer, pleaded guilty to filing a false police report and falsely reporting an incident to law enforcement Thursday morning at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Bessemer. Russell will not face any jail time, but will instead received a six-month suspended jail sentence and will be put on probation for a year.
In addition, Russell will pay nearly $18,000 in restitution to the city of Hoover and serve 100 hours of community service.
Russell disappeared on July 13, 2023 after calling police to report seeing a child walking down I-459. Later that night, her car was found abandoned along the side of the interstate. Two days later, Russell was found after walking back to her family home in Hoover, where she claimed she had been kidnapped. However, during the course of an investigation by the Hoover Police Department, Russell confessed to lying about her abduction.
On Oct. 11, a Hoover municipal judge found Russell guilty of filing a false police report and falsely reporting the incident. She had previously pleaded not guilty in the case.
As part of her conviction, Russell was ordered to pay over $15,000 in restitution and the judge recommended jail time. At the time, her attorney Emory Anthony said she would be appealing her case to a circuit court.
“We stipulated and appealed the case and the reason behind it was that they’re trying to ask for jail time, which we totally disagree with,” Anthony said at the time. “So, in fairness, there’s no need of having a trial here, knowing their position. So we have stipulated and appealed the case and we’ll start anew in the Bessemer circuit court.”
To date, Russell has never explained why she lied about the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.
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