Columbia police have charged a woman they say made up a claim of a sexual assault in Columbia's Five Points.
Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott announced Wednesday at a news
conference that his officers charged 26-year-old Heather Felicia Atkins
with perjury/false swearing to police and filing a false police report.
According to Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott, Atkins told officers
on October 19 that she'd been beaten, kidnapped, and sexually assaulted
at gunpoint while walking near 700 Harden Street. The woman said two men
were responsible, and that one of them held her down while the other
committed the sex assault.
Police say she gave detailed descriptions of the attackers and the circumstances of the incident.
A warrant, though, says that later proved false. The document cites
witnesses who disputed Atkin's claims, and Scott says a Facebook posting
also contradicted her story.
The warrant says Atkins later admitted to filing a false report.
"She lied to the City of Columbia Police, she lied to her family, she
lied to the public and she broke the trust of the people around her,"
Scott said.
According to Scott, here is what really happened. According to him,
Atkins left work early with a male co-worker and went back to his place.
The man's girlfriend caught the two together, and in the resulting
conflict, Atkins got a black eye.
Scott says the woman told them she was too embarrassed to tell the truth, and that's why she made up the story.
The chief says the potential harm that a case like this could do to
victims of sexual assault is why he chose to address this case with a
news conference.
"If you can imagine the damage of how this affects the true victims
of sexual assault," Scott said. "It's too often that people are
victimized. This is an underreported crime, but I can tell you the City
of Columbia and law enforcement as a whole takes sexual assault very
seriously. and this hurts the whole community that this allegation was
made."
Link:
http://www.wltx.com/news/article/206565/2/Police-Woman-Lied-About-Sex-Assault-in-5-Points
