Jennifer Wilbanks, Famous Runaway Bride sues ex-fiance
Category: Her Diary, Relationship, Personality, Lifestyle
Jennifer Wilbanks, the cold feet “runaway bride” who made headlines when she disappeared four days before her planned April 30, 2005, wedding has once again made headlines by suing her ex-fiance, John C. Mason, for half a million dollars for her share of the rights to their story. Jennifer Wilbanks vanished from her home in Duluth, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, just days before she was to marry John Mason, sparking a police hunt that only ended when she turned up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Wilbanks called her finace and said that she had been abducted while jogging and sexually assaulted but later changed her story under police questioning, telling police she ran away because she got cold feet about the wedding. Wilbanks pleaded no contest to a felony charge of making a false statement to the police but the case earned the “couple” instant tabloid celebrity and they sold their story.
Wilbanks was prosecuted for shoplifting in 1996 and again in 1998, according to court records obtained by the Associated Press. Documents state that Wilbanks was charged with shoplifting $1,740 in merchandise from a Gainesville mall in 1996. Felony charges reportedly were dropped after she completed a pretrial diversion program, which included 75 hours of community service and restitution.
In the 1998 case, Wilbanks shoplifting $98 in merchandise from another store. A municipal court judge sentenced her to probation, a $400 fine and 50 hours of community service.
According to court records that was filed on September 13 in Gwinnett County’s Superior Court, Wilbanks is suing Mason, arguing that Mason failed to turn over her share of payment he received for the rights to their story, and with which he bought a house in his name. She is also seeking certain items that she says belong to her - Mason has agreed to return those items.
“In or about July 2005 Regan Media agreed to pay $500,000 to Mason and Wilbanks to purchase the rights to the story of plaintiff’s disappearance … and subsequent events involved in the ‘Runaway Bride’ incident,” says the complaint. The filing says Mason was “willful and malicious” and demands $250,000 as her share of the money and the same amount in punitive damages as compensation for his “bad faith” in abusing the Power of Attorney she granted him to manage their joint financial affairs. It also describes him as “stubbornly litigious. Mr. Mason has until October 22 to respond to the lawsuit.
