COLUMBIA, SC — A 26-year-old woman lied when she claimed she was assaulted by a black man who tried to pull down her pants in a Walmart parking lot, and then posted photos of injuries online to elicit public sympathy, police in Columbia, South Carolina, said. Kristen Michelle Rimes, 26, faces charges relating to reporting a fake crime, according to police.
“You’re not supposed to lie to police,” the department tweeted in an announcement of the Irmo woman’s arrest. She was charged in December with filing a false police report and false swearing (to police), according to a news release.
Rimes told police that she was approached by a black man while she sat in her car in a Walmart parking lot on Nov. 24, 2018, and forced out, causing her to strike her head on the pavement. She claimed the man tried to force down her pants, then posted information about the false incident on social media, “causing a public concern,” police said in the news release.
An investigation showed Rimes was never at the Walmart parking lot on the night she claimed the incident occurred, police said.
The photos Rime posted on social media, and which were circulated by numerous people and groups, showed bruises on her cheek and nose and a bloody cut above one eyebrow, according to an account by the Cola Daily.
She claimed in an interview with the newspaper that she was typing a friend’s address into her GPS system when she heard a voice behind her vehicle 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 told the newspaper. “I had put my car in park and I didn’t think about how my doors unlock automatically when I do that.”
She claimed the man opened her car door and pulled her out, knocked her to the ground, and then began tugging at her pants.
“Then I suddenly hear another guy scream, ‘What’s going on over there?’ And at that point, the guy took off,” she said, continuing her account. “The man who yelled never came back, I just take it as an angel sent from God right at that time.”
She returned home and filed the police report on the morning of Nov. 26, telling police the man who attacked her was “a black male, medium build, wearing a hoodie with a jacket over it,” the newspaper reported.
She told the newspaper she was mad at herself for not making a report earlier. “I think I was in such shock,” she said.
She told the newspaper she was sharing her story to warn others of potential danger.
The State newspaper said the post on Rimes’ personal Facebook page has been removed, but the photos remain on other social media sites, including a community page for Irmo.
One person commenting on the Irmo page said Rimes caused “so much unneeded scare in the community.”
Here is the Columbia Police Department’s tweet about Rimes’ arrest by its Special Victims Unit:
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