Julie R. Bernet, the Bucyrus woman who hired a man to physically assault her and sexually assault a friend, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to wire fraud.
Bernet, 39, admitted that she and 23-year-old Lindsey D. Crawford (who pleaded guilty last week to the same charge) hired a man to attack them in the garage of Crawford's Waldo home on November 25, 2008.
Bernet and Crawford initially claimed that masked men hit them on the head with bottles as they exited the garage. Initial
reports said one of the women claimed that she was sodomized by the assailants.
In reality, prosecutors say Bernet and Crawford hired their attacker, Gordon F. Reabe Jr. of
Lee's Summit, after meeting him at a restaurant in Harrah's Casino the night before the attack. According to charges that were filed, Crawford agreed to let Reabe sexually assault her, but only if she was knocked unconscious (which didn't go as planned; read the dirty details here).
Court records say the women wanted the attack to give the appearance of
retaliation for sexual harassment lawsuits
that they had filed against their former employer, Mercedes Benz of
Kansas City. Bernet and Crawford were allegedly unhappy with a
settlement offer from the dealership.
The scheme apparently fell apart when Reabe tried to hire a neighbor
to go to the dealership and make a threatening call to
Bernet. But the neighbor didn't use a phone at the dealership; he used
his personal cell phone. Bernet reported the call to the Kansas City
Police Department, and the FBI traced the call to the neighbor.
Bernet and Crawford each could get a maximum sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine. A sentencing
hearing hasn't been scheduled, yet.
Comments (0)