March 18th, 2010

False allegations of molestation and rape occur everyday. This is just one example of the more than 52 hundred false reports made in Florida alone in the last two years. PANAMA CITY BEACH -Two spring breakers have been charged with filing false crime reports this week after accusing authorities of rape, police and sheriff’s deputies said. The young women – 19-year-old Megan Wheeler of Allen, Texas, and 22-year-old Kimberly Mills of McDonough, Ga. – were arrested in separate incidents Monday, according to incident reports. Initially, both simply were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct. The false report charge is a felony. Each woman made a rape accusation at the Bay County Jail, authorities said. In Mills’ case, deputies said she was making similar accusations before that. A friend said she was kicked out of Sharky’s Beach Club (where she accused a security guard of rape), angrily locked the friend out of their shared hotel room and caused a scene in the hotel as the pair argued about it. A deputy responded, eventually arrested Mills on a disorderly conduct charge and led her to a patrol car, where she “yelled out, ?You raped me,’ ” according to an incident report. After she arrived at the jail, she claimed one of two male security guards who escorted her – a female guard was present, too – also raped her, the deputy wrote. She remained locked up Wednesday on $5,250 bond, according to the jail. Wheeler, meanwhile, said a Panama City Beach police officer raped her in the back of his patrol car. Police, however, said she wouldn’t consent to an examination and changed her story several times.
Panama City Beach Police Maj. David Humphreys said the false report charge is rare and the agency hasn’t filed one all year. However, if a woman alleges rape after a PCB police officer takes her to the Bay County Jail, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office handles the case. Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Ruth Corley said that over the last two weeks the agency has arrested five people for providing false information or filing a false report.