A 19-year-old Frostproof man has been apprehended and charged after admitting to fabricating a story about being attacked by white men posing as law enforcement in order to persuade his parents to allow him to move to Tampa.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd referred to the incident as the “Polk County Jussie Smollett” case, after the celebrity who made a bogus police report in Chicago.
The incident started when David Cruz, 19, called 911 to report a ‘serious’ crime.
Cruz stated he was stopped by “some white dudes…with a southern accent driving a pickup truck with red and blue lights who said they were cops.” Cruz stated that the men chained him, assaulted him, and sliced him with a box cutter.
Judd added that deputies immediately began an “intensive investigation” into the severe claims. However, the plot rapidly unravelled. According to Judd, “David couldn’t tell the lies in the correct order more than once.”
When confronted with the inconsistencies, Cruz finally admitted, “I lied to y’all.” “I made all of that up.”
The suspect’s motivation was to create a reason to migrate.
Cruz allegedly claimed to investigators that he “wanted to move to Tampa, and I needed to be able to tell my parents I got to get out of here because of the cops that wanted to beat me up and handcuff me, and it was safer in Tampa.”
Cruz was arrested and brought into county jail.
“How’d that work for you, David Cruz?” Sheriff Judd asked. “You’re locked up in the county jail for false report of a crime, misuse of 911, all kinds of other stuff.”
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