GSP employee accused of false report
The call resulted in a lockdown in Armuchee.
Floyd County Police have charged a state employee, Cheryl Lisa Stewart, 40, of Armuchee, with making a false report of a crime for claiming that a man came into the Georgia State Patrol post on Martha Berry Highway on Wednesday with a handgun and threatened to kill her.
According to a press release from the Floyd County police, first responders contacted Stewart who said a white male wearing dark clothing entered the barracks building of the post closest to the highway, as opposed to the Department of Drivers Services building behind the barracks, when he pulled out a firearm and threatened to kill her.
The complaint resulted in a virtual lockdown of the Armuchee community, including cancellation of recreation league games at the North Floyd Park.
The search spilled across the highway to the shopping center where Food Lion is located, and the woods behind the shopping center. K-9 units were called out to no avail.
“We pretty much had everything we had available up there,” said Floyd County Police Chief Mark Wallace. “Rome city came up, the GSP SWAT Team arrived, a GBI crime scene technician was called out looking for any possible DNA evidence that might have been left at the scene. Heck, you name it, it was there.”
During the course of the investigation, police reviewed security video of the post barracks which never showed anything resembling Stewart’s complaint. The warrant for her arrest on a felony charge of making false statements alleges that she “continued to willfully falsify the scheme that she had come up with even after being shown the video which shows no one entering the building.”
In addition to the felony charge, Stewart was also charged with misdemeanors for filing a false report of a crime and causing a false public alarm.
Stewart was being held in the Floyd County Jail without bond Thursday night.