Police: Woman Lied About Assault In Farmington Hills
FARMINGTON HILLS (WWJ) - Police say a woman who reported that she narrowly escaped a possible sexual assault after being attacked by a man in Farmington Hills lied about the incident, which never occurred.
The woman told police she was attacked around 1 a.m. on November 8 in the area of Shiawassee and Hamilton roads, near 9 Mile and Middlebelt roads. She claimed that a man with an orange-colored beard and a missing front tooth knocked her to the ground and may have intended to sexually assault her, but she was able to fight him off and he fled the scene.
Police issued a plea to the public to help catch the perpetrator and even called in the Michigan State Police to create a suspect sketch, which generated numerous tips.
As they continued to investigate, detectives found several inconsistencies in the woman's description of the incident. When detectives confronted her with the inconsistencies, police say she "tearfully admitted that the incident was fabricated to explain an accidental injury that she had sustained in a fall."
The woman apologized, saying she initially told the fabricated story to her mother and that "it got out of hand."
Police said they did not pursue criminal charges against the woman for filing a false police report, but instead referred her for counseling.