US TV meteorologist charged with falsely claiming rape

NEW YORK - A TV meteorologist in America has been charged with falsely claiming that a man had tried to rape her last Fall as she jogged in Central Park.

Heidi Jones, 37, who remains suspended from her forecasting job at WABC/Channel 7, will, according to her lawyer, Paul Callan, enter a plea of not guilty before a criminal court judge.

“We urge everyone to keep an open mind until the conclusion of the case,” the New York Post quoted the lawyer as saying.

“This entire thing has been extremely stressful for her,” he stated.

Jones, who also filled in on ‘Good Morning America’, is charged with a misdemeanour for allegedly filing a false police report, a crime punishable by up to a year in jail and a 1,000-dollar fine.

Cops say Jones told them she was jogging in the park on the afternoon of September 24 when a Hispanic man in his 30s or 40s grabbed her from behind, dragged her into a wooded area and tried to rape her.

She claims that two passers-by frightened the man away and gave her assistance.

Sources revealed Jones only took her account to cops two months later, and detectives embarked on a lengthy investigation, scouring surveillance video and canvassing for witnesses.

Returning empty handed, they questioned Jones again, uncovering inconsistencies as she repeated her account.

Confronted with the discrepancies, Jones allegedly admitted to cops that she fabricated the story as a bid for sympathy after some unknown setback in her personal life. (ANI)