Hoping to receive sympathy by falsely blaming a black man for shooting her, a Georgia cop ended up receiving 15 years in prison instead.
It was September 13, 2016 when Jackson police officer Sherry Hall claimed she was shot by a big, black man with dreadlocks. She said she shot back but he got away. She ended up with a bullet lodge in her bulletproof vest.
Using her description, Jackson police tracked down a big, black man with dreadlocks named Rodreikus Scott and searched his home, ordering him to remove his clothes in front of his daughter to search for bullet wounds, taking him down to the station for further questioning.
Although they never arrested him, Scott said he was in fear for his life. Especially because this was a time when cops were hyping the “War on Police” myth, which was fueled by fabricated shootings like this one.
It was only after 600 hour of investigation over ten days that police realized she had fabricated the story and arrested her.
A jury last month convicted the 43-year-old woman of 10 felony counts and a judge sentenced her to 15 years in prison, followed by 23 years of probation.
Her family believes she got a raw deal.
Hall could have resolved her case with a plea deal. Before trial, she was offered a sentence of five years in prison followed by five years on probation. But she turned it down.
“She’s scared to death of prison,” Hall’s brother, Steve Weaver, said. “She wanted to take a plea, but not one that included prison time. She thought spending 90 days in jail before posting bond was enough.”
The family never expected Wilson would impose such a lengthy sentence if she were convicted, said Weaver, a 47-year-old pastor of a small church in Griffin.
“She definitely didn’t get treated fairly,” he said. “As her brother, obviously it’s hard for me to admit she’s guilty. But if she is guilty, the sentence she received was especially harsh. We hope to seek a sentence reduction in the near future. I mean, this was a nonviolent crime.”
Hall’s story fell apart when an recording from her patrol car dashcam captured the sound of only two gunshots, but she had claimed there were three gunshots; two from her and one from the mystery gunman.
Hall had turned the dashcam off before the shooting, but the audio was recovered by the dashcam manufacturer at the request of police, which is what led to her arrest ten days after she claimed a black man had shot her.
Here is a video interview she did with the local media before was arrested for fabricating the shooting.