TV personality allegedly broke down when detectives picked holes in her story
Lawyer: 'There is a presumption of innocence that applies even to Heidi Jones'
She faces up to a year in jail for false reporting
TV weather woman Heidi Jones told police that she fabricated a story about being sexually assaulted in New York’s Central Park, according to court papers revealed today.
The 37-year-old WABC-TV meteorologist reportedly told detectives: ‘I did make this up. I made it up for attention. I have so much stress at work, with my personal life and with my family.'
She allegedly added in a statement to investigators: ‘I know there is no justification for it.’
Her alleged admission came just days after she claimed a mystery man attacked her while she was jogging in the park.
This morning, Jones appeared at Manhattan Criminal Court where she was formally charged with two misdemeanors of falsely reporting an incident.
If convicted she faces up to a year behind bars.
Wearing a black skirt suit and burgundy leather shoes, she was silent as Judge Lynn Kotler read out the charges.
After the brief hearing, her lawyer Paul Callan said: ‘We have entered a plea of not guilty in the case.’
He refused to say whether Jones, who sometimes fills in on Good Morning America, was now sticking to her story that she was attacked.
Mr Callan complained that his client had been ‘vilified’ since claims emerged that she had fabricated the story.
He said ‘There is a presumption of innocence that applies even to Heidi Jones.'
Assistant District Attorney Shanda Smith said Jones made written and audio taped confessions to police at New York’s Midtown precinct at midnight on December 13.
According to the report, the forecaster came clean about the bogus Central Park sex attack, but insisted the same Hispanic man she claimed had tried to rape her did threaten her at her apartment.
In her original complaint, Jones said a Hispanic man in his 30s or 40s grabbed her from behind, dragged her into a woodland area and tried to rape her last September.
But she reportedly said she was saved by two passers-by who frightened off her assailant.
Jones said she waited two months before going to the police because the man turned up and taunted her outside her apartment.
It was when she was confronted about discrepancies in her story that she allegedly broke down and admitted she concocted the whole thing as a bid for sympathy, said the New York Post.
Jones has been suspended from WABC, where she has worked since 2005, pending a probe into the case.
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