CANADIAN PRESS
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. - The case of the Lethbridge alderwoman accused of lying about a stalker and sending lurid letters to herself resumes tomorrow, where the Crown is expected to wrap up its case.
Dar Heatherington is on trial for public mischief but her lawyer - who has labelled the Crown's case "suspicion and speculation" - has not said if she intends to call witnesses.
"I'm not about to tell anybody, least of all you guys, what the defence is going to do," Tracy Hembroff told reporters when the public mischief trial adjourned Feb. 6.
Heatherington, 40, was first thrust into the spotlight last May when she disappeared while on a council business trip to Great Falls, Mont.
Days later, she turned up dazed and confused in Las Vegas and told authorities she had been abducted, drugged and sexually assaulted - a story she later recanted.
The trial is being heard by Judge Peter Caffaro without a jury.
Court has heard that Heatherington first came to police in the fall of 2002 to report an anonymous man making phone calls to her office. The calls were followed by racy, sometimes obscene, letters sent to her family's home.
Police however, have reported that copies of stalker letters, including one bearing Heatherington's trademark misspellings, were found on Heatherington's computer and electronic organizer.
They reported seeing Heatherington at the library copying out notes from books on stalking. A passage from one book appeared word for word in a stalker letter.
Crowds of people have jammed the courtroom to hear testimony and the case has spawned a cottage industry of cheeky bumper stickers with phrases such as I took Dar to Vegas.
While the Great Falls case is not part of the Lethbridge trial, Heatherington's disappearance in the U.S. came just two days after she told police she wasn't making up the stalker but admitted the evidence appeared to suggest it was her.
"It all points to me," Heatherington told police in the April 30, 2003, interview played in court.
"I wouldn't do this to myself. I don't have one motive as to why I would do this to myself and my family."
Heatherington was charged with lying to police in the U.S. but struck a deal to avoid a criminal record.
She faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted and would also be forced to resign her seat on Lethbridge city council.
