Kidnapping hoaxer Carlee Russell informed the court on Tuesday that she has only paid $500 of the $18,000 she owes in restitution for faking her kidnapping in 2023.
Russell had claimed that she had been mysteriously abducted on the side of an Alabama highway near Hoover. Eventually it was revealed that she made up the whole incident, which triggered a mass-scale waste of resources on the part of the Hoover Police Department, as well as state and federal law enforcement authorities.
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Russell also informed the court that she has been making $50 a month payments on time to pay for her restitution.
Katherine Robertson, Chief Counsel for the Attorney General’s Office — and potential candidate for that job in 2026 — reacted to the news.
“We’re going to be here for a long time at this rate,” Robertson said.
“We’ll be doing this for about 30 years, so it would be great if her payments increased, but we’re not privy to her financial situation. So we’ll keep coming back when the judge calls us in and we’ll see where we are.”
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In response to the incident, the Alabama Legislature passed a bill last year to increase the punishment for persons convicted a falsifying a report of a crime. Lawmakers hope the new law will deter people from making false reports to law enforcement like Russell’s disaster in 2023.
RELATED: Alabama to increase penalties for falsely reporting a crime
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
