WABC Weather Anchor Arrested After Faking Rape Claim

Weather anchor plus crime story equal puns galore for the Post, which reports, "WABC/Channel 7 weather babe Heidi Jones was arrested for perpetrating the ultimate snow job -- falsely claiming to cops that a man had tried to rape her while she was jogging in Central Park, sources said yesterday." The Post's lede was "Here's Heidi's forecast: Cloudy with a chance of deception" and later explains, "Jones spun a story that proved to be as unreliable as a five-day forecast, telling police last month that she was assaulted in September while pounding the pavement in the city's back yard, the sources said." But when the police's investigations came up with nothing, she admitted she made it all up.

Jones, who joined WABC 7 in 2005 and is an avid runner, apparently told police that a Hispanic man in his 30s or 40s "grabbed her from behind, dragged her into a wooded area and attempted to rape her" while she was running in Central Park. However, the attacker was scared off by others in the park, according to Jones' story. Jones didn't report the attack until November 24, which, according to the Post's sources, was strange.

At the time, the sources said, she told police that three days earlier, on Nov. 21, the same man somehow found her again and harassed her, saying, "I know you went to the police."

After cops took her report, detectives conducted a lengthy investigation, canvassing the area for video and witnesses.

Coming up empty-handed, they went to talk to Jones again -- and noticed inconsistencies in her story, the sources said.

After being confronted with the discrepancies, Jones admitted that she had pulled the story out of thin air, the sources said.
Jones said she concocted the tale in a plea for sympathy to counter some unknown setback that she was experiencing in her personal life, the sources said.

Jones was charged with filing a false report, which the Post explains is "a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, she could face up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on December 15, 2010 10:40 AM

Comments [rss]

S.K.

Send her back to Texas. Hire an actual New Yorker to work at a New York news station.

spnder

Awww Heidi. Say it ain't so!

TimeDown

It's despicable that she would make such a false report. It is particularly horrible that she used rape as the accusation. If an innocent person had be arrested for this "crime" their life would have been ruined, no matter if ever came out that she made it up. And it forces people to cast doubt any future real rape victims stories. Women who make such false reports should face the same amount of time that a rapist would.

danny.12345

I hope this bitch gets fired.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_...

Guest

what a twisted bitch.

Kao Lim

Because this city is not Houston and the non-acquittance rapist who target white women in Central Park are black. Hence her story already seemed odd to the cops from the beginning.

Stevennnn

Bonehead move. Have a great job and career and now throwing all that hard work down the drain.

Guest

what the fuck is wrong with this piece of shit?

...excuse my french -- sometimes i just gotta say it.

Communist

Now, could a Hispanic man between 30-40s drag her into woods and rape her?

I will even throw in $5 bucks just for the sake of irony.

robingee

You're an idiot. Go into the woods and stay there.

Nyctini11

She needs to fire her PR person ASAP,bad bad advice, then get back on those meds sweetie.

fuboy

Meanwhile, legitimate rape cases get pushed to the background and are discredited all the more because of this attention-seeking tw@t.

Good job, Heidi.

RevWaldo

She can change her name to 'Tex' Jones now.

Spirit of 76

I think Heidi Antoine would be better. It has a more exotic ring to it.

JacqueMehoff

Linda Church must be laughing at home. Never liked her after she made some unwarranted remark.

handsomedevil

Jones said she concocted the tale in a plea for sympathy to counter some unknown setback that she was experiencing in her personal life.

Yeah, I'm thinking that this is not going to work out the way she hoped.

ides_of_march

Tawana Brawley and the Duke Lacrosse bimbo made false allegations of rape as well ruining other people's lives and reputations yet they were never punished. I wonder why.

ganghiscon

And that girl at Hofstra a year or two ago.

JenChungsBaby

She may be looney tunes, but she was clever enough to employ the universal credibility enhancer for false rape claims: she blamed it on a minority.