A Red Deer woman who Crown prosecutors say was wrongfully released from an Edmonton area jail with allegedly fake release papers has been arrested in B.C.
Red Deer RCMP were advised by the Alberta Justice Center that a remanded prisoner, 24-year-old Mackenzie Dawn Hardy, had been inadvertently released due to fraud on April 25.
In a news release, RCMP said Hardy was taken into custody this week by officers in Revelstoke, along with 27-year-old David Joseph Wood accused of being an accomplice in her release after a patrol officer with Revelstoke RCMP observed two individuals recognized as Hardy and Wood walking away from a stolen vehicle on May 27.
Wood has been charged with assisting in the escape of a prisoner, identity fraud and uttering a forged document.
"Both Hardy and Wood have been taken before a justice of the peace and remanded into custody," the RCMP said Thursday.
"They will be transported back to Alberta where they will be brought before the Alberta courts regarding future court dates."
The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service has said Hardy was released from the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre after staff were shown documents that said her charges had been stayed.
They later learned those papers were fake.
She had been in custody on several offences, including possession of stolen property, impaired driving and driving without insurance or registration after being arrested in March.
A woman who identified herself as Hardy had posted videos on the social media platform TikTok, where she taunted law enforcement and denied that the papers were fake. In one video, she said her release was a "gift from God."
On top of Hardy’s outstanding warrants, she has additionally been charged with Escaping Lawful Custody.
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