Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Chamyra Meosha Houston, aged 27, was taken into custody early this morning and faces charges for falsely reporting a crime. She allegedly dialed 911 to claim her car had been stolen, despite having lent it to a friend who evaded a traffic stop and left the car to roll into a retention pond.
At approximately 11:56 p.m. on June 22, an officer from the Gainesville Police Department conducted a traffic stop involving Houston’s car. The driver allegedly abandoned the moving vehicle and fled, leaving it in gear. Consequently, the car continued into a retention pond owned by the City, causing damage to an outlet control structure.
Roughly 10 minutes afterward, Houston is accused of calling 911 to report her car missing from her workplace parking lot. An officer visited her job location, where she supposedly completed a sworn written statement claiming she had driven to work and that someone had taken her keys and vehicle without her knowledge. She allegedly professed ignorance regarding her vehicle’s whereabouts.
The officer reported that Houston’s statements were “constantly changing” and detained her.
Post Miranda, Houston reportedly said she had left the keys in the car and she knew who had taken it; she said that person possibly took her car to sell drugs from it. Houston reportedly showed the officer text messages from the person she said took her car.
Houston later reportedly changed her story again and said the person who fled the traffic stop had dropped her off at work and that she knew all along that he had her car. She said her friend had called her after he fled from the officer, and that was when she called 911 to report her car stolen to cover for him. She reportedly admitted to deleting her phone call history to hide it from the officer.
When the officer asked why she had tried to implicate someone else for stealing her car, she reportedly said she wanted to protect the person who was driving her car.
Houston also reportedly provided a false address on the sworn statement.
Houston has been charged with making a false police report and making a false official statement. She has no criminal history, and Judge Meshon Rawls ordered her released on her own recognizance.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
