LETHBRIDGE, ALTA. - Dar Heatherington, the controversial Lethbridge alderwoman who promised to leave council next month, has officially been removed from her job.
Heatherington had submitted her resignation earlier this week effective Sept. 10, the day she is to be sentenced for public mischief. Heatherington was convicted of the charge in June after a court ruled she had made up a story about being stalked.
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.
"Today, a long, 14-month story came to an end," Mayor Bob Tarleck said Wednesday. "I'm happy about that. I think the community is happy about that. I hope that Ald. Heatherington and her family are happy about that. It isn't going to end on Sept. 10. It ends today. Right now."
However, Heatherington is eligible to run in this October's municipal elections.
Heatherington drew international attention last May when she disappeared from Great Falls, Mont., and turned up in Las Vegas three days later, claiming to have been abducted, drugged and sexually assaulted.
After interviewing her, Great Falls police said she changed her story and that she went to Nevada with a man. They charged her with making a false statement to police. Prosecutors allowed her to plead not guilty to the charge and dropped it in May 2004, after she received psychiatric counselling.
Heatherington has insisted she is telling the truth and that she was abducted, drugged and sexually assaulted.
In a separate incident, Heatherington went to Lethbridge police in October 2002, saying she'd received seven phone calls from an anonymous man who began by complimenting her work at city hall and then started to make comments about her body.
Heatherington said she also began receiving letters at her home.
She was charged with public mischief a year ago when police concluded, after an eight-month investigation into her stalking allegations, that she was making them up.
Written by CBC News Online staff
