A Pennsylvania woman who admitted to fabricating kidnapping and rape allegations against a stranger whom she “specifically targeted” because she thought he was “creepy” last year is paying for her lies.
Anjela Borisova Urumova, 20, was sentenced to from 45 days to 23 months in Bucks County Correctional Facility on Tuesday by Judge Stephen A. Corr, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.
She was also sentenced to one year of probation, ordered to have no contact with the victim, pay him $3,600 in restitution, and is required to undergo a mental health evaluation.
In January, Urumova — who was facing 17 years in prison — pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanor counts, including tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and false reports.
The lies led to an innocent man, Daniel Pierson, being jailed for 31 days until she admitted to making them up.
“Not only did this targeted false report impact the victim and his family in unimaginable ways, but there is also a profound ripple effect,” District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said.
“A crime like this can shatter the community’s confidence in the system. It can jeopardize prosecutions of legitimate crimes of sexual violence.”
Pierson, 41, was present with his wife in court Tuesday but did not wish to make a statement during the sentencing since the ordeal has been “too emotional” for him and his family, the DA’s office said.
The 20-year-old had claimed she was attacked from behind outside a Redner’s supermarket on April 16, 2024, cooking up a story that the assailant pulled her pants down and smacked her, leaving a bruise on her face.
She then went to the police and accused Pierson as her attacker before eventually fessing up to the tale.
Urumova told investigators that she “specifically targeted” Pierson because she had seen him and his blue Ford F-150 pickup truck in the area before and thought he was “creepy.”
The Middletown Township Police Department also reviewed surveillance video and analyzed Urumova’s cellphone data, which “led to the discovery of multiple inconsistencies and contradictory information with Urumova’s account of the attack at the Redner’s parking lot.”
She was charged on May 20, 2024, and was held on $30,000 bail.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Kristin M. McElroy and Corr thanked the detectives for their hard work, which helped prove Pierson was an innocent man, during the sentencing.
McElroy also called out Urumova’s actions for accusing him of “one of the worst crimes” imaginable.
“In this case, she targeted an innocent man and accused him of one of the worst crimes a person can be accused of,” McElroy said.
“I’m incredibly grateful for the work that law enforcement did in this case to get down to what happened, but it can’t change the fact that a man spent 31 days sleeping in a cell for a crime he didn’t commit.”
