Authorities in Sumter, North Carolina say a local Democratic candidate for mayor staged her own kidnapping and assault “in order to garner publicity, sympathy and votes in the November election.”
The crime: The Sumter Police Department on Thursday issued a press release describing the alleged scheme by Sabrina Belcher, 29.
- Belcher admitted to orchestrating the hoax, which was recorded and uploaded to Facebook Live last week, with the help of 34-year-old Christopher James Eaddy, police said.
- According to police, Belcher met with officers on Tuesday and falsely claimed to have been “assaulted and kidnapped by an unknown man during an attempted robbery.”
- In a video uploaded to Facebook Live, police say Belcher tried to “discredit a fellow candidate.”
The aftermath: Sumter police say Belcher had “ongoing plans to smear other mayoral candidates prior to the election.”
- “This was simply an effort to create disorder and discontent in our community for personal gain,” Police Chief Russell Roark said in a statement.
- The State reported that Belcher has been booked into a local detention center on a $10,000 bond.
Belcher is described in a campaign page under her name on Facebook as the first “Black female candidate ever to run” and as a “decorated community activist.”
- She is among the six candidates running to replace Sumner’s long-serving current Mayor Joseph T. McElveen Jr., who announced in January that he would not be seeking re-election.
- In an interview with The Sumner Item in June, Belcher expressed her desire to become the city’s first black female mayor.
