Woman Could Face Dose Of Texas Justice For Sexual Assault Frame-Up (TWEETS)



As critical as we’ve been lately about police misconduct, we in Liberal America stand up and applaud in situations where the police do the right thing. One of those occasions recently happened in what would seemingly be an unlikely place–East Texas. A woman there got the bright idea to peddle a false story about being gang-raped by three men. However, police there concluded early on that her story didn’t pass the smell test. Now it’s the woman who is the one facing serious jail time.

On the night of March 8, a half-naked Breana Talbott, also known as Breana Harmon, ran screaming into a church in her hometown of Denison, claiming that she’d been the victim of a horrific sexual assault. The then 18-year-old Talbott told police that “three black males” wearing ski masks had kidnapped her at her apartment complex and taken her to a nearby forest. She claimed that two of them raped her while the other held her down. They then let her go–but warned her that they would repeat the dose if they caught her again.

The prospect of three maniacs being on the loose in this middling-sized city roughly an hour north of Dallas, and just a few minutes from the Oklahoma border, sent area residents into a panic. It also triggered a torrent of racist comments on social media.

However, on March 22, Denison police detonated a bombshell–Talbott had just confessed to making the whole thing up. Lynnanne Nguyen of KDFW in Dallas obtained the formal announcement from police chief Jay Burch.

As it turned out, Denison police concluded early on that Talbott’s story didn’t add up. Nurses at Texoma Medical Center in Denison were unable to find any evidence of forcible penetration. Additionally, even though she ran into the church covered with cuts and bruises, cuts on her jeans didn’t match cuts on her thighs.


Over the next two weeks, the inconsistencies kept piling up, and police were unable to find any corroboration for Talbott’s supposed ordeal. Finally, Talbott admitted that it was all a lie. She said that “things from her past” cropped up, prompting her to cut herself and her jeans. She thought her parents would freak out if they found out she’d been cutting herself, and made up the gang-rape story to cover it up.

Police chief Jay Burch said that his officers suspected Talbott was lying within 24 hours of first speaking with her. However, he opted not to close the case as unfounded due to the remote chance that she was telling the truth. He dressed Talbott down for putting the Denison area into a major panic, particularly given its racially charged nature.

Talbott was initially charged with false reporting, a misdemeanor.

However, on Wednesday, a Grayson County grand jury indicted Talbott on four counts related to her outrageous deceit. Talbott was charged with two counts of felony tampering with evidence, one count of felony tampering with government records, and a state jail felony of tampering with government records. The latter charge is a lower class of felony intended to relieve overcrowding in Texas prisons. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $30,000. The Denison police also want to send her the bill for the $8,000 they spent on this wild goose chase.

District attorney Joe Brown said that his review of the case led him to conclude this was far more than just false reporting.

“The more we have looked at what happened in this case, and considered the harm it caused, and certainly could have caused, we believe what she did fits these higher charges. What she did was very serious, and we believe it was felony conduct.”

Specifically, Brown believes that Talbott tampered with evidence when she lied to police “with the intent of affecting the outcome of the investigation.” She tampered with government records when her lies caused a false entry in the official police report, and lied to the nurse who examined her in the hospital.

Anyone who thinks Brown is going over the top should consider the potential damage Talbott’s lies could have caused. She could have potentially ruined innocent people’s lives, and forced them to shell out scads of money to defend themselves for a crime that we now know never occurred. Moreover, rapists, especially child rapists, are regularly beaten up or worse in prison. And that’s before we even discuss the racially charged nature of this case.

Indeed, this sounds a lot like a modern-day version of the numerous instances during Jim Crow days of black men being either lynched or jailed on false accusations of molesting white women. In particular, there are a lot of parallels with the Emmett Till case. Remember, Till was murdered in 1956 after Carolyn Bryant claimed he wolf-whistled at her. Earlier this year, Bryant–now known as Carolyn Bryant Donham–admitted that she made the whole thing up. Which means that, at the very least, she perjured herself on the witness stand–and allowed Till’s killers to go free.

Fortunately, it doesn’t look like a similar miscarriage of justice occurred here. Police realized early on that in all likelihood, there was no there there. No one was arrested in connection with this nonexistent gang rape. It’s worth noting that this occurred in one of the reddest areas of Texas. Grayson County has only supported a Democrat for president once since 1972, and in the last two elections has given Republican candidates more than 70 percent of the vote.

In other words–on paper, this was an area where this outrageous frame-up could have very well resulted in innocent people going to jail. Hopefully we can find out the identity of the cop who first realized that Talbott’s story didn’t pass the smell test. He or she deserves to get a medal.

But more needs to happen for justice to be done here. Considering the potential damage to innocent people that could have been done here, if Talbott gets anything less than the full 10 years, it would be a joke. From where I’m sitting, one of the biggest arguments against mass incarceration is that locking people up for picayune drug offenses doesn’t leave enough room for people who really do belong behind bars. There are certain crimes that no society can tolerate–and this is one of them.

(featured image courtesy Denison Police Department via KDFW)

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.