A 20-year-old woman has been sentenced to jail after authorities determined she made false accusations of being abducted and raped—allegations that initially led to the arrest and incarceration of an innocent man.
False accusations lead to innocent man’s arrest
In April 2024, Anjela Borisova Urumova reported to police that she had been forcibly taken from the parking lot of a Redner’s grocery store in Middletown Township, Pennsylvania.
According to her initial account, a man had approached her from behind after she parked her vehicle, attempted to drag her away, pulled at her clothing, struck her in the face, and tried to force her into his vehicle.
The alleged attack left Urumova with a visible injury—a cut on her lip—which she claimed was the result of the man’s assault.
Urumova provided authorities with a detailed description of her supposed attacker’s vehicle, identifying it as a dark blue Ford F-150 pickup truck bearing a “thin blue line” decal on the rear window and showing signs of rust and damage.
Following her complaint, police arrested 41-year-old Daniel Pierson at his home. He was taken into custody in front of his children, an arrest that would ultimately prove to be based on falsehoods.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Kristin McElroy said that Pierson was charged with several felonies and spent over a month in jail—31 days—before the case against him began to unravel.
Accusers story unravels during investigation
Investigators with the Middletown Township Police Department reviewed security footage from the area and scrutinized Urumova’s phone records.
That analysis reportedly revealed inconsistencies and conflicting details that didn’t align with her version of the events. According to the department, the discrepancies led to a deeper investigation that ultimately revealed that the assault and abduction had never occurred.
Authorities said Urumova confessed to fabricating the story and admitted that she had intentionally chosen Pierson as the target of her accusations because she found him “creepy.”
Further undermining her claims, investigators discovered that the injury to her lip had not been inflicted by Pierson at all. Instead, according to the criminal complaint, the wound was allegedly caused by Urumova’s grandmother.
The document describes how the grandmother, whom Urumova said suffered from dementia, failed to recognize her when she entered the home and threw an object at her, hitting her in the mouth.
“This incident allegedly caused the laceration to her lip that she later blamed on Pierson,” the complaint reads.
Urumova was taken into custody on May 20, 2024. She initially faced a potential sentence of up to 17 years in prison. However, in January, she reached a plea agreement in which she admitted guilt to seven misdemeanor offenses, including filing false reports and tampering with evidence.
On Tuesday, the judge on her case handed down a sentence ranging from 45 days to 23 months at the Bucks County Correctional Facility. The sentence also included a year of probation.
In addition, Urumova was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation, have no contact with Pierson, and pay him $3,600 in restitution.
Kristin McElroy acknowledged the serious damage the false claims had inflicted on Pierson and the broader implications for justice.
“[Urumova] 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.”
Accuser admits to making false accusations in Duke lacrosse team case
The case has drawn comparisons to another high-profile incident involving false sexual assault claims. Crystal Mangum, a former exotic dancer who is currently serving time for the murder of her boyfriend, made national headlines in 2006 when she accused members of the Duke University lacrosse team of rape. Those accusations also proved to be false and caused lasting consequences for those involved.
In an interview aired late last year on the independent media show “Let’s Talk With Kat,” Mangum admitted she had lied about being sexually assaulted by the athletes.
“I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t and that was wrong, and I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me,” Mangum said. “[I] made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God.”
Her accusations had led to the arrest of three Duke players—David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann—and prompted a national debate on race and privilege. The university even canceled the team’s season in the wake of the allegations.
Ultimately, the charges were dropped, and the players were declared innocent. Mangum was not prosecuted for perjury at the time, due in part to questions surrounding her mental health.
“She may have actually believed the many different stories that she has been telling,” former North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in 2006.
