Florida woman lodges false sexual assault complaint that leads to death of innocent neighbor
A Florida woman has been arrested after a report of false sexual assault she filed resulted in the murder of her innocent neighbor.
According to The Smoking Gun, 30-year-old Brittany Sorey, a mother-of-six from Largo, a town just outside Tampa, has been arrested on a single misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime following the death of her neighbor Michael Peterson.
The unfortunate chain of events was triggered after Sorey contacted police last month to report that she had been sexually assaulted in her apartment by a Hispanic man who had forced her way into her residence and "battered her and vaginally penetrated her with a broken broom handle and a box cutter."
Just before that incident, in March, Sorey's husband, 25-year-old Gerald, had been arrested for allegedly shoving her to the ground during an argument stemming from infidelity allegations against the mother. Gerald had also threatened her with a Glock handgun, which was seized by authorities.
Sorey, who was six weeks pregnant at the time, expressed to prosecutors that she did not want to pursue the felony charges of busted aggravated assault on a pregnant victim which was hanging over her husband.
Sorey's claim of sexual assault came a few weeks later, and the couple subsequently left the Largo apartment, though they still allowed one of their male friends to stay there in their stead. It later emerged they had vacated because they were behind on their rent.
As detailed in court documents filed in connection to their case, on May 10, a male neighbor, Peterson, showed up to the apartment to "confront" the 30-year-old and her husband over "money issues," unaware they had moved out already.
When the male friend heard the beating on the front door, he called Sorey, who reportedly told him that "the person knocking at the door sounded like the male that sexually battered her." When the friend exited the apartment to take a picture of the neighbor to send to the police, there was a confrontation, during which the former killed the latter in "self-defense".
The Emergency Medical Services dispatch indicated that an ambulance was sent to their residence at around 10.23 pm that night to handle a trauma call. The court document does not identify either the male friend or how Peterson died.
Following his death, Sorey was interviewed by detectives and she admitted she had "fabricated the entire report of sexual battery and that it never happened." The 30-year-old was issued a bond of $150 and released shortly after she was taken into custody.
Police stated that Peterson was the aggressor in the fight and that the male friend will not be charged because he acted in self-defense and that Sorey could only be charged with filing a false police report.
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