White South Carolina woman, Kristen Michelle Rimes arrested after filing a false report alleging being attacked by a black man wearing a hoodie.
A South Carolina woman who claimed a ‘black male’ attempted to rob and sexually assault her at a Walmart parking lot has been arrested after investigators determined she had lied to police.
In a released statement on Wednesday, cops said Kristen Michelle Rimes was ‘never at the location on the night she claimed the incident occurred.’ Upon her arrest, Rimes was booked with Filing a False Police Report and False Swearing (to Police).
At the time of the incident, Kristen Rimes, 27, posted pictures complete with bruises on her cheeks and nose and a bloody cut above her eye on Facebook. Rimes also filed a police report claiming that she was ‘assaulted by an unknown male suspect,’ according to a news release from the police.
Rimes initially told officers that she left a restaurant in Columbia around 11:30 p.m. Nov. 26, then pulled into the store’s parking lot to type a friend’s address into her GPS, Cola Daily reported at the time.
She was on the outskirts of the lot when she claimed she heard a voice behind her yell, ‘Hey girl!’
‘I didn’t see anybody, just heard a voice. I said I wasn’t interested and I just rolled my window up,’ Rimes recounted saying. ‘I had put my car in park and I didn’t think about how my doors unlock automatically when I do that.’
Soon after according to Rimes a man opened her car door and yanked her out, causing her to hit her head on the pavement.
‘I felt a hit to the right side of my face almost immediately after that,’ Rimes told investigators.
From there, Rimes’ supposed attacker began tugging on her pants until a Good Samaritan yelled and scared him away, she claimed.
Rimes at the time said she didn’t get a good look at the ‘suspect,’ but did catch a glimpse when he pulled her from the car.
‘He was a black male, medium build, wearing a hoodie with a jacket over it,’ she said.
Kristen Michelle Rimes playing (and reinforcing) on negative racial stereotypes.
Rimes went on to posted about the incident on social media, ‘causing public alarm,’ Columbia police said.
‘My co worker! Bless her shes been through a lot,’ April Bodi posted to Facebook a day after the allegedly phony incident, with a link to the news coverage. ‘So glad shes okay! Everyone be on the look out and please travel in pairs. I even call my fiance when I have to walk to my car from work just to be sure someone knows what’s happening.’
Bodi has since updated her post, ‘**EDIT YES I KNOW SHES BEEN TAKEN INTO CUSTODY FOR FALSE POLICE REPORT. VERY UPSET.’
Rimes was booked last month at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, cops said. She was charged with filing a false report and lying to officers.
Contemplated one media outlet: ‘Police did attempt to find the suspect. But how many Black men did that describe in Columbia? How many Black men, young and old, did she put in danger with her false claim?’
Not immediately understood is what led to Rimes fabricating the report and feeding into racial stereotypes that black men are laden predators. Also not immediately clear is how the woman sustained her purported injuries as shown above.
