Alvin Daniels of Alexandria was convicted on charges of obstruction of justice for calling in a false tip in the high profile missing persons case of college student Morgan Harrington. Harrington's disappearance from a Metallica concert in Charlottesville last October sparked widespread interest in the area.

Less than a month after Virginia State Police opened a tip line to source leads in the investigation, Daniels called in to provide a tip on November 11th. Without providing his identity, he told Virginia State police that a 34-year-old Prince William County man was "responsible" for Harrington's disappearance. Law enforcement officials followed up on the information, quickly arriving at the conclusion that the tip was not accurate. Daniels was arrested in June, and charged in Appomattox County, the location of the Virginia State Police tip line. State Police spokeswoman Corinne Gellar indicated that the false tip was "an act of vengeance on the part of Daniels," though she did not elaborate on the relationship between the two men.

Daniels was found guilty on August 11th in Appomattox General District Court. He was sentenced to six months in prison, though that sentence was suspended. He also received 12 months of unsupervised probation, was ordered to pay $1,600 in restitution to the State Police for the time spent on investigating the false lead, and was forbidden to have any contact with the 34-year-old victim. In a statement, a police spokesman addressed the frustration that stems from misuse of tip lines.

"The public does need to be aware that there are penalties for purposely misleading investigators with a tip," State Police Lt. Joe Rader said in a news release. "In this instance, our investigators had to spend valuable time away from the Morgan Harrington case in order to vet an intentional false lead."

Harrington's body was found in a remote area on a farm near Charlottesville in January. The investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death remains open.

This article is presented by The Law Office of Price Benowitz, LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Maryland Criminal Defense Lawyer and Washington DC Criminal Lawyer websites.