New York’s WABC/Channel 7 weather forecaster Heidi Jones was arrested for making a false rape claim to police. Jones claimed that she fought off a hispanic male who pulled her into the bushes while she was jogging in Central Park.
Jones has appeared on “Good Morning America” and filed the report two months after the alleged rape attempt. Police found discrepancies in her story and she finally admitted to making up the story as a play for sympathy. Oa Class A misdemeanor, she could face up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
Source: NY Post
Jonathan Turley
Annie,
I was the person who incorrectly stated that Ms. Seeberg was a ND student. I read that from another article and I can see where the confusion derived, especially when you read the following quote excerpted from the article posted above by Anon Nurse (thanks). This story is important because many young adults face similar experiences during their early sexual lives and there need to be ways of teaching teens to deal with them properly. Only two people know what happened and one of those tragically took her own life. As Anon Nurse stated, the Seeberg’s have every right to seek whatever justice they can. They were very open about their daughter’s emotional problems—they just want, and deserve, the full array of answers and facts to ensure that they have done the best for their daughter’s memory. The links within the article illustrate that Ms. Seeberg was a beautiful young woman and from her community work, she demonstrated that she was also a very good person.
{Quote:
“NORTHBROOK, Ill. — All of the dozen family members gathered in Tom and Mary Seeberg’s living room on Wednesday night said they’ve loved the University of Notre Dame, where 11 Seebergs have gone to college, for so long that they barely know how to process the way they’ve been treated by the school in the last three months.
Tom and Mary’s daughter Lizzy, a 19-year-old freshman at Notre Dame’s sister school, Saint Mary’s College,…”
End Quote}
Her family has hired a former federal prosecutor. Innocent until proven guilty, of course, but let’s have a fair and impartial investigation and see how it all turns out.
An interesting story to follow…
I don’t have a pony in this race, bammbamm.
Just the facts. Let’s hear ’em.
@Annie – sorry – the comment was right below mine, and it’s good to cite the respondee.
bammbamm. Wasn’t referring to your post. Someone else referred to her as a ND student.
@Annie. Please read what I wrote. I know that. I was talking about the football player.
Lizzie Seeburg was not a Notre Dame student. She went to school at the neighboring St. Mary’s.
@anon nurse – So the family feels violated. Does that mean the Notre Dame student is guilty? Girls are predatory too. That’s why pros are called hookers. Rape used to be forcible sex, and now it’s becoming, “I wish I hadn’t done that – the bastard.” Why not try acting civil and wait until the evidence is gathered? At this point it looks like her complaint contained a lot of abstracts and no substance. So she was scared. I imagine having illegitimate sex with a football player for the first time is scary to a 19 year old girl. Maybe her parents rewarded her too much to keep up a phony self esteem – when reality struck she couldn’t handle it. You’ve all got your own opinions – there’s mine.
An excellent article by Melinda Henneberger about the Lizzy Seeberg case:
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/12/17/lizzy-seebergs-family-feels-violated-notre-dame-football-star/
The accused player has a history of aggression and some would say, even, violence. There will probably be “a next time”… — eventually this will likely come back around and bite us. Or some other unsuspecting woman.
(Thank, FFLEO, for the link — I might have missed the stories…)
I am of two minds.
I agree with Anon Nurse.
My fear would be that a true victim who can’t prove a solid case, or who waited days or weeks to recover enough confidence to be able to report would end up in jail or that a true victim, say, who was raped by a prominent or wealthy man, would be the one who went to jail as retribution for making a legitimate accusation.
here are some videos of Ms. Jones while newscasting and running.
http://www.runwithheidi.com/videos
This is a disturbing story about the ND female student who committed suicide after she stated that a ND football player sexually assaulted her, although it did not rise to the level of rape.
{Quote:
“…it will be difficult to press charges when the victim is dead.
UPDATE:
“The St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office has decided not to press charges against any students in Lizzy Seeberg’s case. Michael Dvorak, writing on the Office’s behalf, said that there were conflicts in the witness testimonials, and that subpoenaed phone records conflicted with Seeberg’s complaint. He also pointed out that “Ms. Seeberg’s statements — as a consequence of her untimely death on September 10, 2010 — would be found inadmissible in a court of law because of evidentiary rules involving hearsay.”
End Quote}
There is a link within the next link to a 2 page pdf explaining the prosecutor’s reasoning not to press charges.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/16/lizzy-seeberg-suicide-new_n_797677.html?ir=College
Tootie
One thing to know is that the judicial complaint process allows private reprimands of judges or remedial actions such as sending judges to class. But strangely enough the chief judges seem resistant to even minor reprimands of judges.
In researching the judicial complaint process I found that there was always disagreement about what the complaint process covers. Years ago they said it covered only official conduct not out of office off premises conduct such as use of prostitutes. Then they tried to say that anything that happened involving official conduct was not covered, only out of court conduct.
We can’t exactly get rid of local police but we could do a lot to monitor them such as requiring that all police interviews be videotaped and testing police and prosecutors for use of steroids and cocaine.
DHS seems to be more formal and compliant w public disclosure requirements than DOJ. For instance, both organizations have Data Integrity Boards, as required by the Privacy Act. DHS published full DIB committee minutes but DOJ doesn’t and in fact DOJ’s DIB doesn’t appear to even have meetings.
I like your plain speech and the way you take a firm stance against totalitarianism.
It’s a hard, and it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain a-gonna fall.
My guess is she had a boyfriend who left her, or a guy she really wants, and staging the rape was a call to him for help and attention. It’s childish, but face it, love can make you do stupid things. (hopefully for most of us, not *that* stupid)