INDEPTH: DAR HEATHERINGTON
Timeline
CBC News Online | Updated: September 10, 2004
Dar Heatherington
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Lethbridge, Alta., city councillor Dar Heatherington made national headlines in 2003 after she claimed she was abducted and sexually assaulted during a business meeting in Montana. Police in Montana and Alberta said Heatherington made up the story and told them she had, in fact, run off to Las Vegas with a married man.
Here is how the story unfolded:
Sept. 10, 2004: A judge gives Heatherington a 20-month conditional sentence after her conviction for mischief. She will serve eight months of house arrest followed by one year with a curfew. She will also have to abstain from alcohol and non-prescription drugs.
 CBC STORY: Heatherington gets 20-month conditional sentence
Aug. 12, 2004: Heatherington tells the Lethbridge Herald she will not seek re-election in October.
CBC STORY: Heatherington won't run for office this fall
Aug. 11, 2004: Administrators for the City of Lethbridge use a section of the Municipal Government Act to put Heatherington's resignation into effect immediately, removing her from her job.
CBC STORY: City fast-tracks Heatherington's exit from council
Aug. 9, 2004: Heatherington announces her resignation from Lethbridge city council effective Sept. 10, the same day she is to be sentenced for public mischief.
CBC STORY: Heatherington resigns from council
July 12, 2004: Dar Heatherington refuses to resign as alderwoman on the Lethbridge city council. Council decides to begin the legal process to have her removed, through the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench.
CBC STORY: Lethbridge prepared to take legal steps to remove Dar Heatherington
June 29, 2004: Dar Heatherington is found guilty of public mischief. She was charged following a Lethbridge police investigation into allegations she was being stalked. The conviction means the Lethbridge alderwoman will have to resign. She is to be sentenced Sept. 10.
CBC STORY: Alberta alderwoman guilty of public mischief
Jan. 26, 2004: Lawyers for Dar Heatherington ask for a two-day adjournment on a charge of public mischief. Heatherington had claimed that she was being stalked while in Lethbridge, Alta., claims police contend were false.
CBC STORY: Lethbridge councillor public mischief trial postponed
Sept. 8, 2003: Heatherington pleads not guilty to mischief charges.
CBC STORY: Heatherington pleads not guilty to mischief
June 16, 2003: Heatherington holds a news conference in which she claims she was drugged in Great Falls, Mont., taken to Las Vegas and sexually assaulted several times. She says police in Montana tricked her into going back to Great Falls, and a 2½-hour interrogation by police there led her to say that she had made up her story and had had an affair in Las Vegas.
CBC STORY: Heatherington speaks out on disappearance
June 10, 2003: Lethbridge police charge Heatherington with mischief, following an eight-month investigation into claims she was being stalked, claims police contend were false.
CBC STORY: Lethbridge alderwoman faces new charges
May 20, 2003: Heatherington pleads not guilty to a charge of lying to police in a deal with the Great Falls, Mont., county attorney. The deal requires Heatherington to pay $100 US in court costs and to seek counselling. Cascade County attorney Brant Light says Heatherington changed her story, first saying she had been abducted, then saying she had travelled to Las Vegas with an Alberta man she met in Great Falls.
CBC STORY: Heatherington gets deal from U.S. prosecutor
May 14, 2003: Heatherington's lawyer asks for the case to be delayed a week. The county attorney in Great Falls, Mont., offers Heatherington a deal that would allow her to plead not guilty.
CBC STORY: Montana police offer Heatherington deal
May 9, 2003: The deputy mayor of Lethbridge, Tom Wickersham, says he's getting calls from citizens who want Heatherington to resign.
CBC STORY: Heatherington faces pressure to resign
May 8, 2003: The county attorney in Great Falls releases information about Heatherington's statements to the police. Lethbridge police Sgt. Jamie Fisher says, "Great Falls police are confident that her information is not credible."
Heatherington's husband, David, speaks to reporters in support of Dar. "She suffered from an untoward event while in Great Falls," he says.
CBC STORY: Heatherington's husband stands by her
May 7, 2003: David Heatherington charters a plane to Las Vegas to pick up his wife. Las Vegas police say Heatherington said she might have been sexually assaulted and she was too tired to speak to them, but she wanted to press charges.
The Heatheringtons fly to Great Falls, where they are taken to police headquarters. Police interview Dar Heatherington for four hours and later charge her with making a false statement.
CBC STORY: Heatherington leaves Las Vegas
May 6, 2003 - 10:39 p.m.: Heatherington is found, distraught and shaken, in the valet area of the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. She tells police she was abducted from Great Falls and possibly drugged and sexually assaulted. Police take her to the hospital. She refuses to be examined by a male doctor, but later allows a female to do the examination.
CBC STORY: Heatherington found in Las Vegas
May 6, 2003: Police use a helicopter to search along the Missouri River in Great Falls, Mont., where Heatherington is believed to have gone cycling.
Police in Great Falls say Heatherington has a history with the Lethbridge police. "They are aware of this individual," says police Lieut. Ron Steffans, adding that police are focusing on whether Heatherington had an accident or deliberately disappeared.
CBC STORY: Heatherington known to Lethbridge police
May 5, 2003: Police in Great Falls, Mont., retrace Heatherington's steps, and find her keys and purse outside her rental car, but no blood or other obvious signs of a struggle.
CBC STORY: Lethbridge shocked as alderman vanishes
May 3, 2003: The day Heatherington disappeared.
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9 a.m.: Heatherington phones her husband in Lethbridge, telling him she will not be back for their daughter's piano recital that night because of meetings with officials in Great Falls.
- 10 a.m.: Heatherington phones Great Falls councillor and cancels her meetings.
- 10 a.m. - noon: Heatherington shops in Great Falls and buys a bicycle for $10 at a pawn shop, telling the shopkeeper she wants to ride along the river paths.
- About 2 p.m.: Heatherington's rental car is found in a downtown parking lot.
Heatherington's husband reports her missing that night.
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