St. Louis-area 'Basketball Wives' star arrested after not reporting to federal prison [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)

Jan. 18—ST. LOUIS — A reality TV star who garnered fame after appearing on the VH1 show "Basketball Wives" has been arrested after failing to report to federal prison to begin her four-year sentence for a litany of frauds that netted her more than half a million dollars.

Brittish "Cierrah" Williams failed to report to federal prison in West Virginia on Jan. 3 and was arrested nine days later.

Williams, of Chesterfield, appeared in 2014 on the third season of "Basketball Wives LA" while engaged to Lorenzo Gordon, who played professional basketball overseas. She also starred on the show "Marriage Boot Camp" — a spinoff of "Bridezillas" — on WE tv in 2016 and was hired by WHHL (104.1 FM) to host a show called "The Home Team."

She pleaded guilty last year to 15 federal charges, including tax fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud and pandemic-related fraud. She sent out fake bills for health insurance payouts, lied to the IRS and on applications for federal loans, and opened bank accounts and lines of credit with other people's Social Security numbers.

In all, authorities say she swindled about $564,000.

Williams' report date had already been delayed once because her lawyer said she needed more time to find a therapist to help her 5-year-old daughter adjust to her mother's impending imprisonment and find housing. Williams' lawyer then asked for it to be delayed again after Williams failed to report, but a judge denied the request.

Williams' fraud charges included allegations that she submitted an application for pandemic-related rent relief in California despite receiving a $4,000 reimbursement for housing costs each month from a reality TV show she was filming at the time.

And even after she was indicted, prosecutors said, Williams cashed the California rent relief check for roughly $27,800 at a bank in St. Louis.

Prosecutors wanted Williams to remain imprisoned after she pleaded guilty, but a judge allowed her to remain free.

Williams promised to stay on the straight and narrow at the time. She said in May, after pleading guilty, that she was working two jobs and splitting her time between California and St. Louis.

"I will not be committing any more crimes for the rest of my life," she said.

Williams was sentenced in October to four years in prison and claimed her misdeeds were out of character for an otherwise generous, law-abiding public figure. She was allowed to remain free until she had to report for prison.

But on Jan. 2, the day before she was supposed to arrive at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia, her Chicago-based attorney, Beau Brindley, filed a motion to reduce her sentence to a little over 2 1/2 years.

Williams then did not show up to prison in West Virginia as ordered.

The following day, on Jan. 4, Brindley filed another document requesting Williams be allowed to report for prison even later so she wouldn't have to be transported between West Virginia and St. Louis for hearings on the motion to reduce her sentence.

Federal prosecutors, however, argued Williams wasn't eligible for a sentence reduction and said it was "puzzling" that Brindley would argue that her failure to appear was somehow justified by the pending sentence reduction request.

"There is no scenario in which she will receive a sentence of time served and her presence is not required to rule on the motion," prosecutor Zachary M. Bluestone wrote.

Judge Henry Autrey denied Williams' request to extend her surrender date, and she was arrested a week later. She remains in jail, but federal officials did not say where.

She was set to appear this week for another hearing, but it was pushed back because Brindley wrote he was having health problems related to COVID-19, and "extreme cold weather conditions exacerbate the problem, rendering leaving the house a difficult prospect."

A new hearing is set for Jan. 25.

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