--- description: Charity Johnson, who previously went under the false name of Charite Stevens, has been sentenced to jail for 85 days title: Posing as a 15-Year-Old Gets Grown Woman 85 days in Jail image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fa3484fd4c18551/69869705adae4485f8543a07/charity-johnson_11-jun.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # A Woman Gets Jailed For Posing as a 15-Year-Old by [Stephanie Burnett](/author/stephanie-burnett/) ## Stephanie Burnett Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 11, 2014 7:03 AM CUT  Charity Johnson, 34, is shown in this police booking photo provided by the Longview Police Department in Longview, Texas, on May 15, 2014 Charity Johnson, 34, is shown in this police booking photo provided by the Longview Police Department in Longview, Texas, on May 15, 2014Reuters by [Stephanie Burnett](/author/stephanie-burnett/) ## Stephanie Burnett Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 11, 2014 7:03 AM CUT Charity Johnson, who previously went under the false name of Charite Stevens, has been sentenced to jail for 85 days for failing to identify herself, [according to](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/woman-34-jailed-enrolling-school-teen "undefined") the Associated Press. Johnson, 34 years old, was arrested in May after posing as a teenager and enrolling as a sophomore in New Life Christian School in Longview, Texas. The ruse was exposed after her guardian, Tamica Lincoln, suspected something was amiss. Lincoln claimed that Johnson said she was a 15-year-old orphan and victim of child abuse. “I sympathized with her, and invited her into my home. I took her in as a child, did her hair, got her clothes and shoes,” Lincoln [told](http://www.kltv.com/story/25518762/31-year-old-sophomore-at-e-texas-high-school-arrested "undefined") KLTV in May. \[[_AP_](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/woman-34-jailed-enrolling-school-teen "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2855860/charity-stevens-johnson-posing-as-15-year-old/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2855860/charity-stevens-johnson-posing-as-15-year-old/"},"headline":"A Woman Gets Jailed For Posing as a 15-Year-Old","datePublished":"2014-06-11T07:03:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:20:35.664Z","description":"The 34-year-old woman, who pretended to be a teenager and enrolled in high school, has been sent to jail in East Texas","url":"https://time.com/2855860/charity-stevens-johnson-posing-as-15-year-old/","keywords":["Texas","Crime","fraud"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fa3484fd4c18551/69869705adae4485f8543a07/charity-johnson_11-jun.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Burnett","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-burnett/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fa3484fd4c18551/69869705adae4485f8543a07/charity-johnson_11-jun.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Handout of Charity Johnson in Longview, Texas","caption":"Handout of Charity Johnson in Longview, Texas","creditText":"Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2855860/charity-stevens-johnson-posing-as-15-year-old/","name":"A Woman Gets Jailed For Posing as a 15-Year-Old"}}]}] ```