- A Houston woman was arrested for posing as her ex-boyfriend online in a bizarre catfish scheme to frame him, according to officials.
Lisa Marie Garcia, 22, was charged Friday after she allegedly made bogus threats to herself while impersonating her ex Brandon Berrott on social media, news station WCMH reported.
“Lisa Garcia created a fake Facebook, Instagram account as well as a fake phone number on apps you can create phone numbers from and was sending threats to herself as well as my client’s other child’s mother, purportedly from him,” Berrott’s attorney Carl Moore told WCMH.
Moore claimed that the custody battle over the pair’s child prompted Garcia to attempt to frame his client for making terroristic threats, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The scheme first started in September and continued each time 23-year-old Berrott was released from jail.
Prosecutors said that Berrott was arrested eight times and lost his job because of the supposed threats, news station KHOU reported.
“She didn’t do it once, she didn’t do it twice, she did it eight different times,” Moore told KHOU. “Nobody believed [Berrott], so he was put on house arrest after making bond, as a measure to protect the accusers.”
The woman’s accusations reportedly began to unravel after she falsely claimed Berrott’s mom bribed a judge to get him released.
Garcia faces charges for bribery, online harassment and retaliation. She is being held in custody on $200,000 bail, the Chronicle reported.
- https://nypost.com/2017/12/04/woman-arrested-in-bizarre-catfish-scheme-posing-as-ex/
- She created a fake Facebook account, Instagram, and a fake phone number, using an app from which she was sending threats to herself and to the mother of Berrott’s baby, according to his attorney Carl Moore.
However, Garcia was finally exposed after she claimed that Berrott’s mother bribed a judge to free her son.
That statement turned out to be false, and although Garcia continued with her plan, police became suspicious.
Garcia sent threats while Berrott was cooperating with the investigators, including once when he was in custody.
Investigators determined that he could not have sent the threat.
