Heidi Jones: ABC weather anchor recants rape story

No matter how you look at it, this story is highly unsettling. ABC News weather anchor Heidi Jones, based out of New York City, has recanted serious rape allegations she made to the police. She was subsequently charged with filing a false report.


On Nov. 24, Jones reported an attempted rape. According to CBS News, she said a man tried to rape her a month earlier while she was running through Central Park. She claimed that the same man harassed her on Nov. 21 outside her apartment.

She described her assailant as "a Hispanic man in his 30s or 40s, who grabbed her from behind, dragged her into a wooded area and attempted to rape her." The police launched an investigation, canvassing the area and speaking to potential witnesses. When they followed up with Jones, however, she told them that she'd made up the story.

According to Jones, she fabricated the tale in order to gain sympathy for more minor struggles she was having in her personal life.

She has been given a desk warrant to appear in court for the false report charges, to which she plans to plead not guilty, according to her lawyer, Paul Callan. "Ms. Jones has had a distinguished career as a broadcast journalist and urges all concerned to refrain from jumping to conclusions about the unproven charges against her being discussed in the press," Callan says.

Psychologists tell CBS News that Jones may have pulled the stunt to get a thrill out of outsmarting the police. However, it's not uncommon for women to report assaults and then change their stories after they begin to understand the strenuous and taxing process of prosecuting a perp.

We're interested to see how this plays out in court... and to watch the inevitable "Law & Order: SVU" ripped-from-the-headlines episode.