BREAKING: McCain Worker Admits Making Up Attack Story
11alive.com
McCAIN & HIS SUPPORTERS JUST HIT A NEW LOW!!!!
PITTSBURGH (NBC) -- An investigation into the alleged politically motivated attack on a 20-year-old woman in Bloomfield Wednesday night made quite a turn Friday with the woman changing her story.
Ashley Todd sports two black eyes and a knife-carved "B" on her face, evidence she said shows she was brutally attacked for her political views.
However, WPXI News reporter Renee Kaminski learned through a police source that Todd made the ordeal up.
Several inconsistencies in Todd's story prompted police to give the woman a polygraph test on Friday.
The woman initially told police she had just withdrawn $60 from an automated teller machine at a Citizens Bank near the corner of Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday when a man put a knife to her throat and demanded money.
Todd complied, but she claims when the mugger noticed a McCain/Palin bumper sticker on her car, he punched her and told her that he was going to teach her lesson.
According to Todd, the attacker said, "You are going to be a Barack supporter," at which time she said he sat on her chest, pinning both her hands down with his knees and scratched into her face a backward letter "B" on the right side of her face using what she believed to be a dull knife.
But in subsequent interviews, Todd told police that she parked her car on Pearl Street and walked toward the bank. She said a black male approached her from behind and demanded money, which is when she said she pushed off from him and ran back toward her car.
Todd said that's when the man struck her in the head from behind.
Todd told investigators that she fell to the ground and some how ended on her back. She said the mugger climbed on top of her and started beating her in the face. She said the man even reached under shirt and fondled her breasts.
Todd told police that during the struggle, she lost her glasses and lost consciousness. When she came to, she said she felt a stinging sensation on her cheek. She told police she drove to a friends house on Cypress Street and wasn't aware of the "B" until a photo was taken and shown to her.
She told police she does not recall giving the man any money but that she does not have it and assumes the man took her cash.
Police said Todd has already taken a polygraph test to clear up inconsistencies in her statements, but police won't reveal the results of the test.
Todd described the attacker as a black male, standing about 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing about 200 pounds.
The College Republican National Committee confirms that before the attack, Todd had just finished a campaign assignment at the University of Pittsburgh.
The group's national chairman, Charlie Smith, told Channel 11 News the alleged victim is taking time off to recover from what he views as a political hate crime.
"It's really too bad that someone, anyone, would have to go through this type of intimidation and abuse when she's just trying to be more politically active and more active in our democratic process," said Smith.
The story made national headlines, and both Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke with the victim and her family on Thursday, according to the McCain/Palin campaign.
The Obama/Biden campaign even issued a statement regarding the incident that said, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice."
(WPXI Pittsburgh/NBC) |
