Pearland police say it was downright bold. A wanted woman is accused of going on Twitter, calling police names and declaring she'd never be caught. So authorities took it as a challenge and put in extra work to track her down.
In 140 characters or less you can say pretty much whatever you want on Twitter.
"It doesn't matter where you post things, it's always going to be found," said resident Doug Klupch.
But apparently that was not a concern for Mahogany Mason-Kelly. Last week the college student, who's had a few run-ins with Pearland police, posted, "I still gotta warrant in pearland..those pigs will NEVER catch me!!!...NEVER!!!"
But she may have gotten away with it if those officers she was talking about had not logged on to Twitter
Lt. Onesimo Lopez of the Pearland Police Department said, "Some of the regular patrol officers found that Twitter page. They found that tweet about Pearland not being able to find her and it was kind of offensive."
Klupch asked, "You think cops like being called names? I'd have to disagree with that."
Police say they took it as a challenge, pulled up Mason-Kelly's traffic warrants and tracked her down all the way to her university in Beaumont, where she was arrested by campus police and then transferred back to Pearland.
"When she came in she was very subdued, not as animated as she was on her Twitter account," Lt. Lopez said.
Police say they determined that Mahogany had falsely identified herself as her sister Turquoise on a traffic stop on May 17, 2011. On that day, Mahogany had been stopped for a traffic violation and issued a citation in her sister Turquoise's name. A computer check found that Turquoise Mason-Kelly had an outstanding warrant for her arrest through the Houston Police Department.
Mahogany was arrested for the outstanding warrant and was booked in to jail in her sister Turquoise's name. Mahogany reportedly signed the name Turquoise to all documents and throughout her incarceration continued to pass herself off as Turquoise. The original citation issued to Turquoise/Mahogany had since also gone to warrant.
Once confronted with the photographic and fingerprint evidence, police say Mahogany admitted to providing officers with her sister's identifying information when she was arrested on May 17, 2011. Warrants were then secured charging Mahogany Mason-Kelly with tampering with a governmental record -- a Class A misdemeanor with a $2,500 bond; failure to identify - giving false/fictitious information -- a Class B misdemeanor with a $1,500 bond, in addition to the traffic warrants in her own and Turquoise's names -- Class C misdemeanors with fines totaling $1,877.
Mahogany Mason-Kelly was released on Saturday after posting bond.
