Mom In Disney World Kidnap Hoax Gets Nine to 23 Months
Bonnie Sweeten handed prison time for faking abduction that sparked search.
Aug. 27, 2009 -- Suburban Philadelphia mom Bonnie Sweeten was sentenced to nine to 23 months in prison for filing a false kidnapping report and then fleeing to Disney World with her daughter to avoid arrest.
Sweeten, 38, called 911 and told operators that she had been carjacked by two black men. Her call led to a national search that involved everyone from the FBI to Disney World security and led to a public outcry when it was revealed to be a hoax.
The PTA mom and paralegal was being investigated for financial misdeeds, including the possible theft of $280,000 from her ex-husband's grandfather. She and her second husband, Larry Sweeten, had spent a small fortune on fertility treatments.
Sweeten had been putting off her ex's family for months, but under threat of prosecution she finally had forked over a six-figure check, District Attorney Michelle Henry told the Associated Press.
On the day that her check bounced, Sweeten vanished with daughter. She was located at Disney World two days later.
Despite pleading guilty in a Bucks County, Pa., court to identity theft and filing a false police report, both misdemeanors, the judge handed down a harsher sentence.
"Your wants, your needs, your wishes and desires came before everybody," Judge Jeffrey L. Finley said.
He called Sweeten "a calculating, manipulative, hardhearted woman" and berated her for further inflaming racial tensions with her lies.
Related Stories
ABC News Live