Also Alberta alderwoman says police badgered her into making a false statement about what happened to her when she disappeared in the U.S. last month, an ordeal she continued to describe as an abduction and sexual assault.

Darlene Heatherington said Monday she was treated more like the perpetrator of a crime than a victim during questioning by Montana police when she resurfaced after three days.

"I felt very much that I was being interrogated," she said. "I don't believe for a moment that they even heard what I said, but I repeatedly told them that I did not have consensual sex with this person and I did not go with him willingly."

It was Heatherington's first public appearance in which she explained what happened to her after she mysteriously disappeared during a business trip to Great Falls, MOntario, with fellow councilors from Lethbridge in southern Alberta.

In a tortured hour-long news conference filled with raw emotion, Heatherington haltingly told her side of the story — that a stranger sexually assaulted her four times and gave her drugs against her will.

"I was injected with some type of drugs into my system and I was sexually assaulted four times over the period that I was with this man," Heatherington said.

"I was held against my will and made to do things that are very disturbing."

Her lawyer Tracy Hembroff said physical tests could not conclusively prove there was sexual intercourse, although there was other descriptive evidence such as bruising. She did not answer when asked whether a swab was taken.

"Comments, accusations, innuendoes, and outright lies have been said about me since May 3rd," Heatherington told reporters during an hour-long news conference in Lethbridge.

"If someone has undergone a very traumatic experience in their life, especially a sexual assault, the person is not going to feel like they can face anybody the next day, let alone being a public figure and try to face a nation of innuendoes.

"I find that I could no longer stand by and continue to see false accusations leveled at me," Heatherington said, choking back tears.

"I am here to tell you I am not crazy. I did not make this up."

Struggling to steady her nerves as she spoke, Heatherington described the day she went for a bike tour of the city and was plagued by mechanical problems.

"I pulled over to the side to try to repair the gears. I didn't have any tools and I wasn't being very successful in repairing it and it was at this time that a man pulled up in a car and asked if I needed assistance," Heatherington said.

"I made the mistake and said, 'Yes I would appreciate that'."

Heatherington said she accepted an open beverage from the man -- she drank it and started feeling ill.

"I was becoming very dizzy and nauseous and I asked this man if he could drive me back to my vehicle at the Civic Center. He, of course, offered to do that. As you are all well aware, I did not make it back to my vehicle."

Heatherington said she was subsequently sexually assaulted four times while being held captive by the man.

"I was held against my will and made to do things that are very disturbing," Heatherington said.

Despite her allegations, Heatherington's lawyer confirmed her client has not taken steps to hunt down or prosecute her alleged attacker.

Describing her time in police custody, Heatherington explained that the stress of situation clouded her judgment. Speaking to reports that she was uncooperative with doctors who wanted to administer a rape test in Las Vegas, she said she declined because only a male doctor was available.

"I said I could not allow a male to touch me right now and I asked for a female doctor or a female nurse. I was told they didn't have anyone there and I needed to get a grip."

Heatherington also refuted reports that lab tests did not find evidence of drugs in her system.

"I'm here to tell you that I have the doctor's information and the lab results and in my system were traces of barbituates, opiates and tricyclates."

Asking police to let her see her husband and being refused was the final straw, Heatherington said.

"I continually asked to speak to my family and I was denied. I was denied even the simplest thing of even having a glass of water."

"I finally started telling them what they wanted to hear. They wanted to hear me say I had an affair. They wanted me to say that I had planned it. They wanted me to say it was all made up, including the situation that I'm facing here in Lethbridge, and the charges now."

Brant Light, chief prosecutor of Cascade County in Montana said he watched the three-hour interview in Great Falls through a one-way mirror. He says it was conducted preoperly and with sensitivity.

"She was being talked to as a potential victim. So there was no bullying, there was no coercion," he told CTV News. "It just was very apparent that she wasn't telling the truth. And then finally, she told us she wasn't telling the truth."

Heatherington's psychologist, Dr. Kerry Bernes, sat beside her throughout her public statement, which concluded with him saying: "She is not crazy. She is not psychotic. She is not bi-polar and she is not schizophrenic.''

Heatherington disappeared in early May while on business. The 39-year-old city councillor told police she had been abducted and sexually abused by an Alberta man but wouldn't give his name.

Heatherington was charged with giving false information to the Montana police. She later accepted a deal that will see the charge dropped if she keeps out of trouble and gets psychological help.

But that wasn't the end of her legal woes.

Last week, an investigation into Heatherington's complaints she was receiving phone calls and letters of a sexual nature from an unknown man for six months ended in Lethbridge police charging her with public mischief.

Three Lethbridge police officers attending Heatherington's Monday news conference said they stand by their investigation.

Heatherington told CTV News that she is blaming the controversy surrounding her story on a political double standard that penalizes women.

"I would like people to remember that a Premier Gordon Campbell who was convicted and charged of a felony that endangered people's lives was never once asked to step down," she told CTV Sunday.

Heatherington said she isn't being treated fairly, and added that she deserves to keep her job on Lethbridge city council.

"I have not been convicted of anything here. I was not convicted of anything in Montana. I pled not guilty to a situation, to an ordeal, and I will stand by that not guilty," she said.

After Monday's news conference, Heatherington took her regular place in the Lethbridge city council chamber. She presented a letter asking that her request for a leave of absence be withdrawn so she could return to regular duties.