In an interview with the Sun yesterday, registered nurse Linda Ebbert said she performed most of

a standard rape kit on Heatherington, but the distraught mother of three would not allow an internal cervical exam.

"Certainly we did everything for her that she would permit us to do," Ebbert said.

"When I have a patient behave the way she did, those are the ones you don't forget. She was extremely emotional."

During a press conference Monday, Heatherington claimed U.S. cops treated her like a criminal instead of a traumatized victim after she was drugged and sexually assaulted last month by a stranger who abducted her in Great Falls, Mont., and held her captive three days before she turned up in Las Vegas.

Justice officials in both states have refuted the accusations, saying she was evasive and uncooperative. Lethbridge cops charged her with public mischief last week, alleging she lied for several months about being stalked by an unknown man.

Heatherington's parents, when contacted by the Sun yesterday at their home near Gunn, 70 km west of Edmonton, responded by fax. "Darlene was raised to walk with her back straight and her head held high and that is exactly what she is doing," Frank and Louise Harper wrote.

"We are as proud today of her ... as we were on April 30 before this event all began. We all love her very much and will continue to stand by her for as long as it will take."

Ebbert, one of two full-time nurse examiners contracted by the Nevada hospital, said she was able to take several swabs during the exam and forwarded them to the police crime lab.

"I don't know if the kit was processed or if they found anything ... I don't get that information back," she said.

USUAL SIGNS ABSENT

But Ebbert maintains the usual signs of sexual trauma were absent in Heatherington's case. "Normally if there was trauma there, we would see it."

Heatherington had a few bruises, she added, but none of them appeared new and none were in the genital area.

Ebbert also disputes Heatherington's allegation that there were no women to conduct the exam.

"We don't have any males at all on our team. We go an extra hundred miles on any sexual assault, and to have somebody say that we didn't do anything for them, it really bothers me."

U.S. police and attorneys refute accusations made by Alta. alderwoman

American police and public attorneys have refuted accusations by Lethbridge Ald. Dar Heatherington that they mistreated her after her mysterious disappearance south of the border.

Justice officials in Great Falls, Mont., also denied Tuesday that they coerced Heatherington into confessing she lied about being abducted and sexually assaulted. During an emotional news conference Monday, Heatherington said she was dazed and confused from her ordeal but police treated her like a "villain" rather than a "victim," even though she told them she had been drugged and repeatedly sexually assaulted by a stranger, who she said forcibly took her from Great Falls to Las Vegas last month.

But police say they were patient and respectful toward Heatherington, even though she was often evasive and unco-operative.

In fact, Las Vegas police say she quickly left the Nevada city even though she was told by police that they wanted to continue an interview that was cut short because Heatherington said she was tired and weak.

"I don't understand how she can say those things, when it was her who left the city before we were able to finish interviewing her," said Las Vegas police officer Jose Montoya.

"How she gathered that the police department was done talking to her, I've got no idea."

Heatherington disappeared in Great Falls and turned up three days later in Las Vegas, saying that she had been abducted, drugged and sexually assaulted.

After she returned to Montana and had a three-hour interview with police, she was charged in Great Falls with giving false information to a police officer. She later accepted a deferred prosecution, in which the charge will be dropped in a year if she stays out of trouble and receives regular psychiatric care.

Last week, the rookie alderwoman was charged with public mischief in Lethbridge after city police accused her of lying for several months about being stalked by an unknown man.

Las Vegas police also deny that Heatherington initially refused a medical examination because there were only male hospital staff on hand to conduct it.

Heatherington told reporters: "I said that I could not allow a man to touch me right now and I asked for a female doctor or a female nurse. I was told that they didn't have anyone there and that I needed to get a grip and to go through with the examination."

Lt. Jeff Carlson, head of the Las Vegas police sexual assault unit, said the hospital doesn't allow male nurses to conduct exams on sexually abused female victims.

"As far as the sexual assault exam, it was a female," he said. "I don't believe they have males doing the exams at all."

Heatherington finally consented to some exams but not all, said Carlson who said he couldn't specifically say which exam Heatherington refused.

Carlson also refuted Heatherington's claim that police and hospital staff refused to give her a place to stay overnight.

The Community Action Against Rape, a Las Vegas organization of female workers who help sexually abused women, helped Heatherington during her brief hospital stay, Carlson said.

"This organization found her a place to stay that evening," he added.

Heatherington also said that during her interview with Great Falls police she was badgered into confessing that she concocted the entire story about being abducted and sexually abused.

"They wanted me to say that I had an affair," she said. "They wanted me to say that it was all made up . . . After 2½ hours I just told them what they wanted to hear."

Brant Light, Cascade county's chief prosecutor in Montana, said the detective doing the interview was gentle and kind and in no way pressured Heatherington into confessing.

"She told her story with no interruptions for about 45 minutes, but after the detective started poking holes in the story she broke down and admitted she was lying," said Light, who watched the entire interview through a one-way mirror.

Kory Larsen, assistant city attorney for Great Falls, said he watched Heatherington sign a statement weeks after the police interview, in which she admitted there was good reason for charging her with lying to police.

"She agreed that there was probable cause for that charge, therefore she agreed that she had made a false report to law enforcement," Larsen said.

But at her news conference Monday, Heatherington said police didn't have any evidence against her.

"They had nothing to legitimately charge me with," she said. "So this is their way, if you will, to punish me because they needed to present something to their community about why they have done that type of an extensive search."

CAROL HARRINGTON, cnews.canoe.ca

Whittaker was not home at the time, and Chief Deputy John Dailey said the death of Jesse Joe Tribble, 18, was not related to the burglary and was not a homicide. It may have been drug-related, Dailey said.

Judge Deborah Neal, 54, has been on paid leave since Aug. 16; she remains hospitalized for treatment of depression. She was among the patrons in a Kansas City, Kan., casino that was raided by authorities in April.

Dar Heatherington cried in court as she was handed the sentence for public mischief.

That evidence included letters, sexy lingerie and a computer disk with Ms. Heatherington's face pasted on photos of a woman performing various sex acts.

Armed men burst into the north Moscow arcade at about 6 a.m. and opened fire, the Interfax news agency reported. They killed a security guard and a customer, and seriously wounded the cashier.

Iorworth Hoare, the rapist, who has already been in jail for 36 years, has been moved from a low-security open prison to a high-security cell in another jail amid fears that he could be attacked by jealous prisoners.

But City of Lethbridge administrators found a section of the Municipal Government Act that said Heatherington's resignation took effect the day it was tendered – meaning her role on council ended Monday.

The 60-page filing, presented in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that the companies sell rights to web advertisements based on searches for terms such as "illegal gambling," "internet gambling" and "California gambling."

Mayor Bob Tarleck said the city isn't waiting to see if Dar Heatherington voluntarily resigns before it applies to court for her removal. A lawyer is "presently engaged in this case," Tarleck said.

The 40-year-old had signed a plea agreement that the misdemeanor charge would be dropped if she stayed out of trouble for a year and saw a psychiatrist.

Under the deal, the charge was to be dismissed if she provided proof she had seen a psychiatrist, paid court costs and stayed out of trouble for the full year.

VLTs generate 30 per cent of Loto-Quebec's profits but the corporation wants to reduce the number of machines in poorer areas.

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So far, only one federal employee, civilian director Paul Champagne, has been fired after auditors discovered National Defence had paid $160 million for military computer hardware and support services it never received.