Teen escapes jail time after she lies to police, creates fake story of being kidnapped and raped by black men

A Texas woman convicted of concocting a fabricated story about being kidnapped and raped by three black men will avoid jail time. A Denison judge gave her probation and fines on Tuesday.

FOX12 reports that Breana Harmon, 19, was ordered to serve 8 years probation after pleading guilty in a Grayson County courtroom to tampering with a government record and tampering with evidence. The charges stemmed from a March 2017 incident in which Harmon lied to police and fabricated a story about being kidnapped, then raped by two black men while another black man held her down.

“She’s very remorseful for what she did and what she said and that’s why she decided to plead guilty,” Harmon’s lawyer Bob Jarvis said, according to the Herald Democrat.

Court records indicate that authorities became skeptical last year after Harmon kept changing her story of events. Upon further questioning, Harmon admitted she made the ordeal up after she got into a fight with her fiancé and realized their relationship would likely end. She admitted that she cut her own clothes then cut herself to make the story appear real, then added in the false rape accusation so that her family wouldn’t be upset with her.

“I mean, it was pretty obvious that she did what she did,” Jarvis said earlier this month. “Now the question is, what should her punishment be?”

Harmon will serve deferred adjudication probation, meaning if she completes her probation successfully, her case gets dismissed, but with stipulations. Although the felony will fall off of her record upon successful completion of her probation, her guilty plea will always remain. She’ll also have to pay $2,000 in court fines, $8,000 in restitution and complete 160 hours of community service.

On Tuesday, Harmon testified that she agreed to deferred adjudication probation because she has plans to become a nurse, and a felony on her record would prevent her from obtaining her dreams. She also admitted she was severely depressed when the incident occurred after terminating a pregnancy for medical reasons while living with an alleged abusive ex.

Regardless, her actions hurt the community of Denison, according to Denison Police Chief Jay Burch, especially the black community after the false descriptions of the supposed suspects were made public.

“Breana [Harmon’s] hoax was also insulting to our community and especially offensive to the African-American community due to her description of the so-called suspects in her hoax. The anger and hurt caused from such a hoax are difficult and all so unnecessary.”

[Feature Photo: Breana Harmon/Denison Police Department]