
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 26, 1995                   TAG: 9504260109
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WOMAN GETS JAIL FOR FALSE CARJACK REPORT

A Roanoke woman who told police she was carjacked from a supermarket parking lot was sentenced Tuesday to 59 days in jail for making a false report.

Joyce L. Pullen, 40, told police that two men jumped into her car the night of Dec. 14 and forced her at knifepoint to drive away from the Crossroads Mall area.

Under questioning from police, Pullen later admitted to concocting the story so her boyfriend would not learn the truth - that she had been looking for drugs and had lent her car to two men who never returned.

As part of an agreement reached Tuesday in Roanoke Circuit Court, Pullen pleaded guilty to giving false information to police. She was sentenced to 59 days in jail, fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $500 to compensate police for their investigation of the bogus report.

``It's an abuse of the system that cannot be tolerated,''Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Gardner said of Pullen's actions.

Initially, Pullen told police that the two men had jumped in her car, forced her to lie down in the back, drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway and then back toward the city, dropping her off within walking distance of a pay phone.

She gave a detailed description, from the type of beer the men were drinking- Budweiser - to the type of music they were playing on the radio - country, according to earlier testimony.

After police found the car in a different location the next day, Pullen changed her story and said she gave her boyfriend's car to the two potential drug dealers, only to find herself without drugs or a car.

by CNB