Teen who lied about being gang raped faces felony charges

DENISON, Texas — A Texas teenager is facing felony charges after she falsely claimed she was kidnapped and raped by three African-American men in March, according to reports.

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Breana Harmon, 19, ran into a church wearing only a shirt, bra and underwear and told witnesses she had been abducted, taken to the woods behind the church and raped by two of the men as the third held her down, the Dallas Morning News reported.

An investigation found that the cuts on her jeans did not match the cuts on her legs, authorities said. A nurse found no evidence of sexual assault after examining Harmon. Later in March, she admitted to police that she had made up the entire ordeal.

Harmon told authorities that “things from her past started going through her head” and she “began cutting herself and her jeans,” the Herald Democrat reported. She then confessed that she had lied about the incident because she didn’t want her mother to know she was cutting herself.

Harmon was initially arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. She was indicted Wednesday on charges including two third-degree felony counts of tampering with physical evidence and a felony count of tampering with a government record, among other charges. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison.

“The more we have looked at what happened in this case, and considered the harm it caused, and certainly could have caused, we believe what she did fits these higher charges,” Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown said in a statement. “What she did was very serious, and we believe it was felony conduct.”

The Herald Democrat reported that the Denison Police Department, which investigated the case, is also seeking $8,000 in restitution.

Cox Media Group