Kidnap hoax mom has trial date today in Bucks

Bonnie Sweeten, the suburban mother of three who faked her own abduction in May, is scheduled for trial on misdemeanor charges this afternoon in Bucks County Court. A guilty plea is expected.

Sweeten, 38, drew national attention May 26 by calling 911 and claiming to have been carjacked along with her 9-year-old daughter. She said in the call that two black men had rear-ended her SUV along busy Street Road in Lower Bucks County and kidnapped her and the girl. Sweeten claimed to be calling from the trunk of the kidnappers' Cadillac.

The kidnapping was a hoax; Sweeten and 9-year-old Julia Rakoczy turned up the next day at a luxury resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. She was charged with false reports and identity theft, having used the drivers license of a former co-worker to purchase a plane ticket from Philadelphia the day she fled.

Her case is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Potential sentences for the crimes range from probation to a short prison term.

The episode drew the particular ire of African-Americans, who said Sweeten not only displayed racism by blaming black men to legitimize her hoax, but also endangered black men by unfairly placing them under police and public suspicion in the emotionally charged manhunt.

Resolving the current charges against Sweeten will not end her legal problems. The longtime paralegal remains under a federal theft and forgery investigation that involves numerous false documents and hundreds of thousands of dollars in missing money.

Sweeten's former in-laws say she stole $280,000 from the 92-year-old great-grandfather of two of her children by forging a check from his money-market retirement account. The money, according to documents provided by the man's family, was then deposited into the trust account of a law firm where Sweeten formerly worked, apparently to cover six-figure checks she wrote to clients who were owed money.

She fled the day that a $285,000 restitution check that she had written to the elderly man's family bounced. The man's relatives had been trying to recover the money since discovering the theft in January.

Since the abduction hoax, Sweeten's second husband has filed for divorce and she has come under scrutiny for additional financial irregularities at the law firm. Law enforcement officials have declined to comment on the full scope of the investigation.