Abduction hoax mom receives prison time
DOYLESTOWN — A white suburban mother who placed a 911 call claiming two black men had carjacked her — but instead flew to Disney World with her child to escape a looming arrest — was sent to prison Thursday for nine to 23 months.
Bonnie Sweeten, 38, pleaded guilty in Bucks County Court to identity theft and filing a false police report, misdemeanors that typically bring only probation.
But a judge offended by Sweeten's performance on a 911 tape said her hoax led to a frantic national search, traumatized her daughter and, perhaps worst of all, tore open society's racial wounds.
"Your wants, your needs, your wishes and desires came before everybody," Judge Jeffrey L. Finley said.
He called Sweeten, a paralegal and PTA mom, "a calculating, manipulative, hardhearted woman."
Sweeten, of Feasterville, just outside Philadelphia, parked her vehicle on a downtown Philadelphia street May 26, made the 911 call and hopped in a cab to the airport.
She flew to Orlando, Fla., with her 9-year-old daughter under a co-worker's name after creating a ruse to get the woman's driver's license.
