I don’t know New Mexico law, but seeing she made claims about being abducted to them I suppose some form of filing a false report or obstructing an officer would be the charge.
But in Georgia
they’re talking about charges. Of what? 
Since when is it illegal for an adult to up and take off without telling anybody? Or is there a part of the story I’m missing.
IANAL, but this is the part the police didn’t like:
Wilbanks also made an emergency call to Albuquerque police. During that call, an apparently upset Wilbanks reported she had been kidnapped.
Yes, and I said this:
I don’t know New Mexico law, but seeing she made claims about being abducted to them I suppose some form of filing a false report or obstructing an officer would be the charge. But in Georgia they’re talking about charges. Of what? Since when is it illegal for an adult to up and take off without telling anybody? Or is there a part of the story I’m missing.
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I know theres a case in New Mexico I’m talking about the law in Georgia. What is it they are thinking about? Unless she did something else I don’t know of, how is just taking off a criminal offense there?
I’m not sure about the law (IANAL,LM,OAJ) but it could be something about breach of contract (ie: the Marriage proposal)
Apparantly there was a law in Texas (still might be on the books) about how a woman could sue her fiance if he broke off a wedding engagement.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that she faked her own abduction, and “disappeared”? Didn’t she leave hanks of her hair for the police to find, thus making the idea that she was kidnapped plausible?
But that’s a civil matter, not a criminal one.
My understanding of the case is that she also spoke to Georgia police and told them of the kidnapping.
Perhaps they are annoyed by the fact that she looks totally wired in all her photos?
Apparently, the blushing bride was on the phone with Albuquerque 911, her family, and Georgia police at the same time (I don’t know how, I’m just going by news reports and the 911 transcript). She allegedly told Georgia police the same abduction story.
The District Attorney is considering charges mainly because of the enormous expense and man power drain that city, county and state police departments incurred searching for a woman who was not lost. Consider:
That said, I do not expect that any charges will be filed in Georgia, though there is some public outcry. The DA will “consider” charges long enought to appease the outcry and perhaps persade the families to make some sort of restitution for the trouble she caused. It will all blow over soon and, if I don’t miss my bet, the wedding will procede quietly in a couple of months.
Note that the last sentence has no connection with the previous sentences, because none of her actions are a crime or constitute making false police reports or making a false statement. Even if she realized that there would be an outcry, that’s not her problem if she hasn’t committed a crime by walking out of her life.
So the only thing I can see is to charge her with is making a false report by reiterating the kidnapping story to the Georgia authorities. I don’t do criminal law (except for family :)) so I don’t know how they would calculate a fine, but the problem as I see it is that the true expense in dealing with her disappearance was incurred before she made her false statement. In other words, if she had never claimed to have been kidnapped, the amount spent would have been the same. So I don’t know that there’s a basis for the authorities to recover any of what they spent trying to locate her.
I can’t see that it makes any sense to file charges based on money and time that people wasted before she allegedly committed the “crime.” Nobody incurred significant expenses because she allegedly filed a false report.
In my opinion, if they do file charges and she’s adjudicated guilty, any punishment should not take into account any events before her report.
(On preview, what Campion said. 
)
[Divine] “Jennifer Wilbanks, you stand convicted of assholeism! Your proper punishment will now take place. Look pretty for the picture, Jennifer!” [/Divine]
I was not aware, upon starting this thread, that she made kidnapping claims to the police in Georgia. If she has, then yes, there are grounds for charges.
But if all she had done was split, regardless of expense, I can’t see the crime in that.
Unless she had intentionally left clues to make it look like an abduction.
Happily, she’s home in time to play the role of Amy in the local theater production of Company:
Just wanted to align behind what Campion said. The Duluth, GA police made judgements that incurred all the expenses BEFORE any crime was committed (unless new facts come to light). Claiming that she should be responsible for their decisions seems a bit ridiculous.
In fact, it’s arguable that her false claim actually saved the Duluth police some money. I gather from the news reports that the costs stem from a massive hunt to find her or any traces of her, when it was not known where she was or if she was even alive.
Once she called in, they knew she was alive and not in Georgia, so the Duluth police should have called off the hunt right away. They may have opened a new investigation, of the alleged abduction, but that would be much more focussed and less expensive. In any event, in the few hours between her false report and her recanting, I can’t see how they would have spent very much on the abduction investigation.
Caught wearing white shoes after Labor Day.
Supposing that she did deliberately attempt to make it look like an abduction (as, for instance, by planting samples of her hair). If that can be proven, and that her intent was to give the impression that she was abducted, is there any crime in that?
And if there was no crime (or her only crime(s) were of no great consequence), is it possible for the Duluth police department to sue her for the expenses they needlessly incurred? If they do, is it plausible that they could win?
Chronos, I don’t know about Georgia, but an Alberta woman who did just that was charged with “mischief,” (as well as making false statements.) She also ran off to Vegas, incidentally.