If the 40-year-old politician is convicted of making false claims to police about being stalked, as cops allege, she could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The Crown could have elected yesterday to proceed by summary conviction, a lesser offence.

Heatherington's lawyer Tracy Hembroff said she was surprised by the move, considering her client's lack of criminal history.

Lethbridge police said they spent about $17,000 investigating claims a man was harassing and stalking her for a year.

Heatherington wasn't in court, but is expected to appear when the matter continues Aug. 21.

Reports surfaced yesterday the rookie alderman's husband Dave -- who maintains he believes his wife -- may have provided investigators with some of the information they used to build a case against her.

The mother of three made headlines when she disappeared May 3 while on business in Great Falls, Mont., and resurfaced in Las Vegas three days later claiming she'd been drugged, abducted and raped.

Heatherington later changed her story, saying she ran off with a married man to Las Vegas.

Police in Great Falls charged her with making a false complaint, which was dismissed after she agreed to seek psychiatric care.

By MELISSA RIDGEN, CALGARY SUN

Residents want Heatherington off council

Lethbridge - A group of residents hoping to force Dar Heatherington from city council are collecting signatures to take the matter to court.

Ken Ikle, who organized the petition, says if they can get more than 7,200 people to sign a petition – 10 per cent of Lethbridge's population – they can ask city council to take Heatherington's role as alderman to the Court of Queen's Bench.

"The support that we are getting now on the petitions and the people phoning and asking for petitions, it's just been enormous," Ikle said. "It's been an explosion. And we couldn't believe it. We thought we wouldn't have a chance to get it."

Gladys Nemeth, who has a petition in her store, says those who sign say they no longer have faith in Heatherington.

David Heatherington says his wife doesn't think the petition is worth commenting on at this time.

A spokesman for Municipal Affairs says it would still be up to city council to decide whether there are grounds within the Municipal Government Act to ask the court to rule on Heatherington's future.

The 40-year-old mother of three caused an uproar when she went missing during a council trip to Montana May 3, re-appearing three days later in Las Vegas, claiming she'd been drugged, abducted and sexually assaulted.

Police in Great Falls, Mont. charged her with making false statements to police, saying she changed her story and told them she went to Nevada with a man she met along the city's river path. The prosecutor there allowed her to plead not guilty to the charge and will drop it after a year, on the condition she receive psychiatric counselling.

A few weeks later, Lethbridge Police charged her with mischief, after an eight-month investigation into her allegations she was being stalked. She appears in court on that charge on Thursday.

In mid-June, Heatherington held an unusual news conference, which lasted more than an hour, where she gave her account of what happened between Great Falls and Las Vegas, insisting that she didn't make up her allegations of being forcibly taken to Nevada and repeatedly sexually assaulted.

Source: edmonton.cbc.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.

…"Former street cop Rick McIntosh, who stepped down temporarily as president of the Toronto Police Association on Sunday, is among those being investigated...

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.