Wife of accused sex abuser told Georgia child it was just ‘psychic visions,’ feds say
A 35-year-old woman in Georgia tried to convince a child to recant allegations in a sex abuse case against her husband by telling the victim they were merely “psychic visions,” according to federal prosecutors.
Now she’s going to prison.
Lori Wilson — a micro-influencer who goes by “Loretta Lightningbolt” on her social media accounts — was sentenced to six years in federal prison after she pleaded guilty to witness tampering earlier this year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia said Tuesday in a news release.
“It takes tremendous bravery for a victim to come forward, particularly when that victim is a child,” U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine said in the release. “Lori Wilson further victimized this child by attempting to persuade the victim that it had all been a dream, when Wilson knew she was compounding the child’s nightmarish victimization.”
Prosecutors charged Lori Wilson and her husband Michael Wilson in separate indictments last year. The couple is from Richmond Hill, just south of Savannah.
Michael Wilson, 37, is accused of attempting to coerce multiple minors into sexual acts from 2017 to 2019, prosecutors said. His wife, meanwhile, tried to persuade one victim “that the sexual assaults Victim A reported were merely ‘psychic visions’ or ‘dreams,’ rather than Victim A’s actual experiences,” court filings state.
As an active duty member of the U.S. military, Michael Wilson was also charged with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice relating to the rape and sexual assault of a child, according to Tuesday’s news release.
Prosecutor said the charges against him carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Michael Wilson pleaded guilty to attempted coercion of a minor to engage in sexual activity in July and is awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said. Lori Wilson pleaded guilty to tampering with a victim in June.
According to her social media pages, “Loretta Lightningbolt” describes herself as a witch and uses her accounts to share videos of her hairless cat, makeup tutorials and tarot readings.
In a post on Sept. 22, 2019, she told her Facebook followers she was “put in jail for a crime I didn’t commit.”
“This is not a joke,” the post read. “I need bond and lawyer money, because our justice system doesn’t work.”
Lori Wilson said she still had no bond in an update four days later. She has not posted on the page since.
According to a sentencing memorandum filed by her defense attorneys, Lori Wilson has remained in the Chatham County Detention Center since her arrest on Sept. 19, 2019, where she “has worked almost every day in the facility’s cafeteria.”
Citing childhood trauma and the unlikelihood of a repeat offense, defense attorneys requested Lori Wilson be given credit for the time she has already served and permitted to serve the remaining balance on probation.
“Unthinkably, Lori found herself once again with horribly limited options as she discovered her husband had been abusing (a child),” court filings state. “With little formal education, little formal work experience, and no savings, Lori had essentially no way to escape this union and provide for her children. For these reasons, Lori made decisions she now woefully regrets.”
A judge denied that request during a sentencing hearing Tuesday. She was ordered to serve nearly six years in federal prison with an additional three years of supervised release.
Lori Wilson was also ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution to the victim.
