Woman Jailed for Two Years for Cruise Hoax

[Limeoutsider]

HONOLULU (Reuters) - A Southern California woman was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Monday to two years in federal prison for committing a high seas terror hoax that she had hoped would cut short a vacation cruise with her parents and return her to her boyfriend. Kelley Marie Ferguson, 20, of Laguna Hills, Calif., will begin serving her sentence in six weeks, but the prison has not been determined, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson. In handing out the sentence, U.S. District Judge Helen Gilmor was "deeply dismayed" by Ferguson's conduct, Sorenson said. Ferguson had been accused of writing threatening notes April 22 and 23 while aboard Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas, which was sailing to Hilo, Hawaii during a 10-day cruise out of Ensenada, Mexico. The notes said "all Americanos" would die if the cruise ship and 2,400 crew and passengers docked at a U.S. port. The notes scared the passengers and crew of the cruise ship, Sorenson said. "She wanted to really play that up because that was the only way she could get that cruise ship to turn around," he said. The ship was diverted to Oahu and searched for biological, chemical, radiological and explosive materials by 120 state, federal and military investigators. While interviewing people on board, Ferguson, who was traveling with her parents and siblings, confessed to writing the notes, saying she hoped the letters would bring an early end to the trip. Since pleading guilty in May, Ferguson has been in the custody of her parents at their Orange County home. The court had ordered her to remain at their home and during that time, she gave birth to a daughter. To monitor her movements, the court ordered Ferguson to wear a special monitor that tracked her position through a global positioning satellite. Ferguson had faced up to 20 years in prison, but Sorenson said the judge had to follow federal sentencing guidelines that took into account her crime, her previous criminal history, her behavior and other factors. Sorenson said he was satisfied with the sentence. "I hope she is getting a message from this," Sorenson said. "It appears, from the letters she has written to the court, that she is legitimately sorry for this and is beginning to understand the breadth of the problems she caused."


How dumb could she be? 1st, she did it because she didnt want to go, why didnt she tell her parents in the 1st place that she didnt want to go?, and 2nd, if she had read the the cruise lines reimbursement policies, in some cases, the options are money back or a free cruise, so she may have been stuck going on another cruise!

 

[drew70]

How dumb could she be? 1st, she did it because she didnt want to go, why didnt she tell her parents in the 1st place that she didnt want to go?, and 2nd, if she had read the the cruise lines reimbursement policies, in some cases, the options are money back or a free cruise, so she may have been stuck going on another cruise!

Could be the fact that she's twenty years old and being treated like she's eleven has something to do with it. That alone says there's something wrong either with her or her parents.