A woman running for mayor in the South Carolina city of Sumter in late November faces criminal charges for staging her own kidnapping and beating as she sought to get "publicity, sympathy, and votes in the November election", local police said.
Sabrina Belcher - running for mayor of Stumpter, SC - faked her own kidnapping to get sympathy votes. What is happening to America?!
— MrReagan (@MrReaganUSA) August 22, 2020
(She's a Democrat. Naturally.)
pic.twitter.com/FcPpAJfGaT
She even live-streamed the stunt, carried out with the help of 34-year-old Christopher Eaddy, on Facebook, in a bid to rack up strings of views and likes.
Belcher, 29, who has been promoting herself as the first "black female candidate" to ever run for mayor of the city, reported to police that a man was trying to rob her, having knocked her car windows out, assaulted, and kidnapped her.
Nothing to see here, Just another normal story of @JoeBiden's party https://t.co/PPu9xSYQGA
— Joel Fischer (@JFNYC1) August 21, 2020
She claimed she didn't know the man, with crews taking her to the hospital and then releasing her.
However, investigators later found she had been in contact with Eady prior to the "attack" and the duo had planned it well in advance.
Belcher, who admitted plotting the incident in advance, is charged with conspiracy and filing a false police report. Her accomplice faces conspiracy charges. Belcher is currently being held on a $10,000 bond, whereas Eaddy got a $5,000 bond and has since been released.
This is what Democrats have to offer? It’s no wonder communities will fail. She still hasn't dropped out of the mayoral race.
— TwitFelon 🐵🙈🙉 (@FelonTwit) August 21, 2020
Democratic Mayoral Candidate Sabrina Belcher Faked Her Own Kidnapping To Win Votes, Police Say - The Daily Caller https://t.co/nQHTs0kwUH
Investigators accused Belcher of trying to smear a political opponent during the fake attack, and conspiring to smear other candidates ahead of the election.
"This was simply an effort to create disorder and discontent in our community for personal gain", Police Chief Russell Roark commented, pointing to police and emergency crews operating on a false call:
"As a result, a valuable number of resources, including personnel, man-hours of the police department as well as local medical professionals, were wasted based on false information".
