Should the "Runaway Bride" be punnished?

xpost.

anyway, yeah, thanks american media. there's bigger fish to fry but we get this, michael jackson, da pope, terri schiavo, etc.

http://www.leadingbrand.org/images/carradine.jpg

that's all i gotta say about that.
m.

Why, oh why do you suppose that she radically postponed her wedding to this guy?

Maybe someone told her that John Daly is currently single.

Duluth residents, including some of the 150 volunteers who had helped search for Wilbanks, had a mixed reaction to her return.
"We were all disappointed, maybe a little embarrassed," said the Rev. Alan Jones, who was to have performed the wedding.

disappointed that she wasn't found dead in the woods....?

Wilbanks was scheduled to get married Saturday in front of 600 guests....in a swank ceremony with 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen.

http://www.ambergnat.com/archives/images/btj.jpg

*sighs again*

xpost

Seriously. The thread title isn't even spelled correctly! This is not a "serious" forum!

Ok, Serious Issues, Douchebag:
* first and foremost: should she be punished as a criminal? (obvious answer: no. let's stick to rapists and murderers, ok? Let it be known that anyone that disagrees with me is in favor of a police state.)
* should the family donate the reward to the PDs and volunteers that looked for her? (well...no. the family that offered the reward had nothing to do with her disappearance. if anyone's offering anything, it should be the runaway bride, not her parents)
* which begs the next question: should the RB be fiscally responsible for what she did? (maybe. she definitely didn't do anything criminal (and those that would say that she did aren't people to (a) be taken seriously and (b) be allowed to hold any public office EVER), though she did do something incredibly irresponsible that cost people time and money. So we'll say: Money? ok; jail time? absolutely not.

x-post Allyzay is correct. Allyzay rulez.

"She has taken any ground gained to insure that missing persons get the exposure and the search efforts underway. She may cause the next missing person to not get the attention the case deserves. She should at the least be required to pay the man hours for the search she caused."

"I sure hope someone presses charges. She had local police, FBI and surrounding agencies involved. As far as I am concerned she is selfish and immature. She needs to understand that she has added to skepticism of other cases where police may not believe the next missing to search that way. There is an element of harming future true victims."

"how about filing a false report, obstruction of justice, and covering the costs of all the searchers and police man hours spent looking for her? I was so excited when I heard she was okay, thats why I started this thread...Sure I'm glad she's okay, but what about the cases that NEED this attention?

I want to know why a 'bride to be' case gets more national coverage then a missing child. I know its all based on emotions and ratings too, but what about the others who are legitmately missing, that desperately need some attention?

Yes, its great she's fine, but she needs to be held accountable so others won't try the same stunt when they get cold feet.

I'm getting married next june. If I get cold feet, I'll tell everyone thats exactly what happened...not make up a ruse so I don't disappoint people.

So now...they are all traumatized, and disappointed? arghhh."

"Its cases like this that causes Law-Enforcement not to take legit missing person adult cases seriously..Therefore losing valuable time,sometimes evidence,and sometimes a life is lost..

We as a company that deals with missing persons every day are very angry and upset with the way things are being handled..Dont get us wrong,we are thrilled this young lady is alive and wasnt a victim..We are happy that her Family and Friends wont have to endure the pain and suffering of having a missing loved one:Who are never found or missing for months and years only to be found murdered..

But its our opinion: Yes,this lady made several mistakes and wasnt thinking clearly..All because she didnt want to face the cold hard facts about her life and the direction it was going..She couldnt bring herself to be honest and trust in her Family and Friends to give her sound advice no matter what the issues might be..But she ran and made things worse when she lied about her disappearence..

Now its like a pity party: Poor me,just look at my life and the position I am in, isnt it a mess!!!!

When in reality: There are several young ladies in the world that would love to be in her position and wouldnt act like a spoiled brat..

Even now look at the media coverage she is getting,its not deserving of so much attention or thought..When there are true victims out there that needs their story told nation wide,to help generate leads that might solve the case...

[We] say: once she made the statement that she had been abducted which turned out to be a false statement..She broke the law and she should face charges!!She should pay for her mistakes and the hardships she caused in some way..The law is the law and people in the past have been charged with making a false statement,taken to court found guilty and a sentence for that crime was given...So why is this case being treated differently??

If nothing else: She should be made to pay some type of restitution..This money should go to funds that help find the missing..The sum of money she should pay:no less than $5,000.00 and no more than $10,000.00..

This might help her learn a valuable lesson and it might make others think twice before they make a false statement about being abducted..Something should be done!!!

Its hard enough getting true missing person cases fast reactions from law-enforcement and the media to reach out to the public..The more false cases like this that surfaces is going to make things harder and some might take things fore-granted..This might lead to a legit missing persons case to be labeled questionable,so resoruces and reaction times are slower...

This young lady who broke the law:Isnt even getting a slap on the wrist...

Why should the law think that her embaressment is punishment enough?"

"I agree...confused and scared about a wedding is no reason to break several laws...and hurt cases that really NEEDED this kind of media exposure. She should be charged with giving a false statement to a peace officer, filing a false report, and reckless endangerment or a similar charge for having so many officers search remote locations for her. Then she should have to see a roll call of all the
missing persons cases that the poor families are BEGGING for anyone to notice. How did she get 6 hours
coverage early this morning on CNN...when most missing persons cases get 2 mins? The wedding? So what, I'm getting married too, as our thousands of other women.

She needs to apologigize, face a few charges, and maybe do community service. Because some girl will
hear this story someday, and copycat her actions because this girl got away with it. There should be consequences.

That said, I don't hate her. I'm just mad, and wish she'd be shown all the cases that might be solved if they got 6 hours uninterrupted air time too."

I do think she should be charged with making a false statement to police at least, and be made to pay restitution not only for the amount of monetary resources devoted toward searching for her but also toward some sort of missing persons' charity, e.g. the NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).

And as for the joke-making -- yes, I'm aware that the bulk of what goes on in this forum is joke-making, but sometimes it gets to the point where hardly anything on here ISN'T joke-making, and I would like to have a break from that. Maybe that's because I myself can't be purely lighthearted to save my life. I'm not sure. But... there are so many things that COULD be said about things that DON'T get said because they DO end up disappearing in this big sea of nonstop wisecrackery.

right, and yet about 2 hours ago you were having a laugh writing backwards on a thread about human rights violation in china. it's a question of perspective.

but not before gary marshall.

How did this become international news?

I don't care if she's punished! I don't care about any of it at all. It doesn't concern me. It doesn't concern anyone except the people immediately affected.

Cable TV news must be killed.

I'm not sure. It's baffling. One thing you can say, the international (non-US) sources take a less biased view of the whole thing.

and i love how the self-righteous twerps on that mailing list inexplicably act like it's this woman's fault that this story was chosen by the press to be this week's "pointless human interest story that no one cares about."

"She said that she never thought there would be a search for her. Well, that just doesn't make sense."

That's a douchebag.

but, given that most local governments are getting fucked by dubya's tax cuts + unfunded mandates, i think it's more than the county treasurer that should be pissed about this waste of money.

Also, to whoever said that it's not her fault that the media blew the whole thing out proportion: OTM.

Dude, easy. They're just more interested in more traditional, train-based transportation solutions. It's like you've got this knee-jerk hatorade just because they like all-white subways. Jeesh.

http://www.his.com/~blev/Images/lynner01a.jpg

http://www.lynnerussell.com/gallery/images/modeling_jpg.jpg

What law did she allegedly violate anyway? Giving a false statement to the police (in the course of one's own missing persons investigation, after one has been found, at which point would the investigation still be devoted to anything other than paperwork, like ensuring her continuin safety or well-being)?

Possible Punishments:

Isn't having your face on CNN for 3 days straight, punishment enough?

We're not the only board to be talking about this either. I'd be sick if I knew one of my dumb japes had caused me to be a subject of public comment. I definitely think that a DA's office needs the baility to prosecute people for filing false

Apparently the worst punishment would be to make her get married.

The DA should brandish the threat of prosecution and drop it and get on with bidness. She, on the other hand has some 'splainin' to do. I definitely believe that DA offices should have the ability to prosecute people for lying to the police but that they shouldn't press charges in most cases like this.

Morbius is right. My gf has that book.

and I think Ally was right upthread.

There's more than a hint of Salem witch burning here. It reminds me of that staged event where a man supposedly proposes to a woman at a basketball game and she declines and then everyone wants to attack her.

PLUR

it's pretty stupid.

I call it the "Vanessa Williams Syndrome" or "VWS" for short.)

http://www.spscriptorium.com/SPBios/ButtersParents.jpg

Friends said Mr Mason was once a "wild" guy who "dated a lot", but became a Christian and "born-again virgin" five years ago.

"He's been saving himself for the right woman," Andy Parsons said.

Ms Wilbanks' friends say that probably drove the marathon enthusiast to run from the altar.

In Ms Wilbanks' home town of Gainsville, girlfriends told The New York Post the 32-year-old woman had once enjoyed a very active social life, regularly dating men from a local gym as well as firemen.

Ms Wilbanks, who had breast implants before meeting Mason, "had lots of boyfriends," a friend said.

Yesterday, she said her cross-country jaunt had "nothing to do with cold feet."

"I cannot fully explain what happened to me last week," the runaway bride wrote in a rambling statement read by her pastor.

There were "a host of compelling issues which seemed out of control."

Wow, someone's on the rag. Right....females get 'free passes', muah-ha-ha-ha...

"It's disturbing to me on a personal basis that she's willing to profit from this, but there's nothing I can do about it legally," said Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, who pursued charges against Wilbanks.