South Carolina Mayoral Candidate Charged After Staging Kidnapping for Sympathy Votes

A South Carolina mayoral candidate and her associate have been charged after police say they staged her kidnapping and beating to garner publicity, sympathy, and votes in the November election.

FOX Carolina reports that the candidate, 29-year-old Sabrina Belcher confessed to planning the scheme, which police say she recorded and posted to Facebook Live. Her accomplice is 34-year-old Christopher James Eaddy.

On Tuesday, Belcher went to the police station to report her assault and kidnapping by an unknown man during an attempted robbery. She was hurt and her car windows had been smashed during the incident.

Police say Belcher gave them a fake name for her attacker. Authorities later figured out that she had been in touch with Eaddy, who helped her devise and stage the alleged incident. Police also say that the pair tried to slander a fellow candidate in the Facebook Live recording, and that Belcher had more strategies to discredit other mayoral candidates before the election.

“This was simply an effort to create disorder and discontent in our community for personal gain,” Chief Russell Roark said. “As a result, a valuable number of resources, including personnel, man-hours of the police department as well as local medical professionals, were wasted based on false information.”