Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Plea deal, probation end saga of runaway bride

As part of a plea bargain, Jennifer Wilbanks receives two years of probation and 120 hours of community service.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Wearing her engagement ring and walking at her fiance's side, Jennifer Wilbanks made it to the courthouse on time Thursday. But she wasn't there to say "I do."

Instead, the 32-year-old bride-to-be who skipped town just before her wedding day tearfully pleaded no contest to faking her own abduction.

"I'm truly sorry for my actions and I just want to thank Gwinnett County and the city of Duluth," Wilbanks said.

Judge Ronnie Batchelor sentenced her to two years of probation and 120 hours of community service as part of a plea bargain on a charge of making a false statement. He also ordered her to continue mental health treatment and pay the Sheriff's Office $2,550.

That is in addition to the $13,250 the runaway bride previously agreed to pay the city of Duluth, Ga., to help cover the overtime costs incurred in searching for her.

"She's done everything that we would ask of her," said her lawyer, Lydia Sartain. "She has accepted responsibility."

Wilbanks' relatives and her fiance had no comment.

Wilbanks arrived at the courthouse in a casual, hooded black outfit and running shoes, with a new bobbed hairdo. Wearing a black suit, John Mason, the man she was supposed to have married April 30, was by her side as she strode past a crowd of reporters.

After the sentencing, the attorneys approached the bench to discuss the case and Wilbanks sat alone at the defense table, hugging herself and sobbing quietly. Mason sat several rows behind her, watching in silence. The two did not share any words or glances as Wilbanks' lawyer escorted her out a back door of the courtroom.

District Attorney Danny Porter called the plea "a good resolution of the matter under all of the facts of the case and taking into consideration Ms. Wilbanks' prior criminal record." Wilbanks was convicted of shoplifting during the 1990s.

Wilbanks disappeared from her Duluth home on April 26, four days before she was to have been married at a lavish ceremony with 600 guests and 28 attendants. She cut her hair and took a bus to Las Vegas and then Albuquerque, N.M.

She called police three days later, claiming she had been abducted and sexually assaulted. She quickly recanted and said she fled because of unspecified personal problems. After returning home, she entered psychiatric treatment at an unspecified facility.

Last week, she was indicted on charges of making a false statement and making a false police report. She could have gotten six years in prison and $11,000 in fines if convicted.

The false-statement charge stemmed from a phone call she made from New Mexico to Georgia in which she made the abduction and assault allegations. The false-report charge was dropped as part of her plea bargain.

Wilbanks also could have been ordered to reimburse authorities for the full cost of the search, which has been put at more than $50,000.

[Last modified June 3, 2005, 01:17:39]