Accused of Lying About Calling 911

[VotingVeteran]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Indiana
A woman goes to work and tells her co-workers that on her way home last night that two men tried to get into her car at a stop light. She called 911 and was told to continue home and that by the time they get an officer out there, the men would be gone. This was in the country between a small town and small city. The woman does nothing else. Her boss at work sends out an email detailing what had happened to warn other women who travel at night to make sure their doors are locked. Somehow, the email gets the attention of the local paper who contacts the County Police and asks about it. The police know nothing about it and pull the 911 tapes and find no record of the call. Two days later an officer comes to the workplace of the woman and takes her to the cafeteria and asks her questions. She answers the questions. The next week, the woman is called into the police department to be interviewed. She is not read her rights. She answers their questions and is told that there is no record of the 911 call and is accused of lying and given the option of stating that she got caught up in the moment and that she didn't make the call. She refuses to change her story. She is told that the police are getting a copy of her phone records. She has a pre-paid cell phone. She is asked to take a lie detector. She says she will with an attorney present. No lie detector was given. Over the next several weeks a police officer visits her place of work and speaks to her boss on more than 3 occasions, but the woman is not contacted again. Now she has been contacted by phone and is told that she is going to be charged and that if she admits she got caught up in the moment that the detective would give that information to his captain, but with the time and money spent on investigating this that he would probably send it to the prosecutor anyway and the prosecutor will decide if charges would be coming. The officer also told her that he would contact her and let her know if a warrant was going to be issued and give her an opportunity to turn herself in. The 911 tapes show no record of the call. Her phone company states that with a pre-paid phone that 911 calls do not show up on her detailed call log since there is no daily usage fee and it is a free call. You have to go through their legal department to get a 911 detail call log. I don't know if the police did this or not or if they just got a copy of her call log. I have a copy of her 911 call log and there is no 911 call on it. The woman is sticking with her story that she did call 911 and is being truthful. She did not admit to getting caught up in the moment and said that it would be a lie for her to say she didn't call. She has no record and employeed. What could they charge her with?

[mamabear2102003]

Interesting situation. Many atty's offer a no or low cost initial consultation. Tell your friend to go talk to one that will be able to lay things out for her.

[tigerdog]

IMO, there was no crime committed by this woman. Assume for a moment that she lied through her teeth. Who did she lie to? Her co-workers. She did not file a false police report.
This is the same as me going to work and telling my co-workers that I met Brad Pitt. Then my boss sends an email out telling all my co-workers that Brad Pitt is in town. Then the newspaper gets ahold of the information and calls Brad Pitt's agent to verify. But he's not really in town.
I can make up stories all day long and it would be rather difficult (at best) to prove any criminal activity took place.
Again, whether it happened or not does not seem to be the issue.

[aardvarc]

I agree with Tiger. Something in this story doesn't jive or you have not been given all of the facts. Police don't get involved and start investigations and getting warrants for phone records for an employee lying (or not) to their boss about making a 911 call - even when the media asks about it. It wouldn't have gotten to the point of pulling tapes (which aren't even tapes anymore - it's all digitial). The department would have looked in the computer aided dispatch system, either found or not found the call, and that would be that. They either had the call and shared information as appropriate, or, said "sorry, it must not have been our jurisdiction since we've got no record". They're not about to go to the archives if CAD says "no record". (A frequent snafu with 911 is that calls go to the law enforcement agency based on geography of towers, and many times callers mistakenly assume they've got agency A when in reality they've got agency B - for example reaching the sheriff's office when they think they are calling the local city PD).

[Mr. Knowitall]

A woman goes to work and tells her co-workers that on her way home last night that two men tried to get into her car at a stop light. She called 911 and was told to continue home and that by the time they get an officer out there, the men would be gone.

So, basically, she told her co-workers that the police told her to drive home and refused to respond to her call because "the men would be gone"? And this trickled through to the media, who contacted the police to find out if the allegation was true? And the police investigated, found out that no call had ever been placed, and were annoyed that this woman had badmouthed them? So now they're trying to get her to confess to lying about making a 911 call?

I suspect that the police are treating the follow-up report, where she insisted to an investigating officer that the incident occurred as described, as a police report, and that if they can prove that she lied they will charge her with making a false police report. The most likely way that they are going to be able to build a case is if the woman admits to lying.