Friday, March 18th, 2011

UPDATE 11/2: Disgraced Former WABC Meteorologist Heidi Jones Sentenced For Central Park Rape Hoax

The New York Post reports that the weather correspondent who falsely reported an attempted rape in Central Park last fall is in the works to strike a plea deal.

Heidi Jones, the meteorologist who filled in for Sam Champion on WABC-TV and has appeared on Good Morning America, filed a police report on November 24th alleging that a Hispanic man in his 30’s attacked her while she was jogging in Central Park in September and attempted to rape her.  After Jones admitted to making the story up, she was suspended from WABC-TV and charged with falsifying a police report.  Now, she is negotiating with Manhattan prosecutors in hopes of resolving the charges.

“We’re involved in active discussions for a possible resolution of this case,” Jones’ lawyer, Paul Callan said yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court.  The lawyer sounded so confident that the case would be resolved within the next month or so that he told the judge he didn’t need to bother filing pre-trial motions.  The judge requested that Callan do so anyway, to which he agreed, regardless of the outcome of the negotiations with prosecutors.  Stay tuned to find out Jones’ punishment, which could be as severe as a year in jail and $1,000 fine.

Filed under: Celebrities, Central Park, Crime, Film, Manhattan, New York City, News, NYC, Upper West Side, Upper West Side Blog, Upper West Side Oddities, UWS 1 Comment »
Tags: ABC, Attempted Rape, Central Park, Court, Crime, Falsifying Police Report, Good Morning America, Heidi Jones, Jogger, Jogging, Meterologist, News, Paul Callan, Police, Rape, Running, Sam Champion, Television, TV, WABC-TV, Weather, Weather Person