The long, strange saga of the hipster grifter, aka Kari Ferrell, appears to be coming to a close—or at least a game-changing pause. We admit that the notion of Ms. Ferrell eluding capture for months, even years, befriending twentysomethings in tattooed enclaves across the country while she insisted that she had been framed (or at least, was sorry) was alluring. But last evening, Ms. Ferrell turned herself in to Philadelphia police and called ANIMAL New York’s Bucky Turco (from her iPhone!) at 2:30 a.m. this morning to let him know.
“She’s been arrested,” a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Police confirmed to The Observer this morning.
We asked whether the Philly police had been in touch with the cops in Salt Lake City, where Ms. Ferrell is wanted on various warrants.
“We’re in touch. It’s up to them to come get her,” said the spokeswoman.
We called up the ever-friendly Sergeant Fred Ross, a spokesperson for the Salt Lake City Police Department, and asked him what the story was. “Our watch commander was in contact with them last evening,” he said. “The whole extradition process has to flow. She has to agree to the extradition—it could be a period of time.”
Like, months?
“That’s highly unlikely. If she turned herself in, then the extradition process will go fairly quickly,” he said.
Mr. Ross detailed the outstanding warrants against Ms. Ferrell (because the warrants are open, he was unable to go into more detail). She has three outstanding warrants in the Salt Lake City jurisdiction: two for Forgery Felony Three, and another for Felony Three for issuing a bad check. She has an open warrant out of Sandy Justice Court, in a suburb of Salt Lake City, for failure to appear, and a warrant out of the Second District Court in Layton, Utah, about 20 miles north of Salt Lake City, for issuing a bad check. Her final warrant is a retail theft warrant in Taylorsville, another suburb of Salt Lake City; that warrant is for $100,005. (It seems that the judge really wants her back.)
This morning The Observer also spoke to Ms. Ferrell’s bail bond agent in Salt Lake City. “I am going to file my paperwork with the court today, and see if I can get that kid his money,” the agent told us. “That kid,” is Brian MaWhinney; when Ms. Ferrell skipped town last summer, she left Mr. MaWhinney, a former boyfriend, holding the bag for her $5,000 bail, which he had to pay on his credit card when she failed to show up for a December court date. “Hopefully at least one person can get his money back.”
The agent explained how the bail bond process works when someone fails to appear. “When you fail to appear in court, us being the bail bond company have six months to bring her before the court. If we don’t do that, our bond goes into forfeiture and we have to pay the court $5,000 in cash. If she’s in custody somewhere, we should be able to have our attorney exonerate the bond.”
The agent added: “She has the option to waive extradition. If she does that, then she’s saying, `Yeah, I have charges in another state.’ If she chooses to fight it and waive extradition, she’ll go through the Philadelphia process and it’s hell. She’ll just do extra time.”