Darlene "Dar" Heatherington (born 1963) is a former Canadian politician who was forced to resign her city council seat in

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 106,550 in the 2023 Alberta municipal censuses, 2023 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

in 2004 after being convicted of public

mischief Mischief (or malicious mischief) is the name for a class of criminal offenses that are defined differently in different legal jurisdictions. While the wrongful acts will often involve what is popularly described as vandalism, there can be a lega ...

Reports

On May 3, 2003, Heatherington first made Canadian and international headlines when she disappeared from a conference in

Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the List of cities and towns in Montana, third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...

. Three days later, she was found in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, alleging that she had been abducted and raped. Police found her report to be inconsistent and lacking evidence, and she eventually recanted. She was charged with filing a false report to police but pleaded not guilty. She continues to allege that the incident happened as reported and that the police coerced her into recanting her original statement. Previously, Heatherington had filed reports with Lethbridge police that she was being stalked. She was receiving sexually explicit letters from her stalker, but her reports often did not match police surveillance evidence. On June 10, 2003, she was charged with public mischief after police concluded that the stalker did not exist and that Heatherington was likely writing the letters herself. On September 8, she pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.

Charges and sentencing

On June 29, 2004, Heatherington was found guilty of public mischief. Although required by law to resign her council seat following her conviction, Heatherington initially refused to do so. As a result, Lethbridge city council initiated the process of having her removed through the

Alberta Court of Queen's Bench The Court of King's Bench of Alberta (abbreviated in legal citation, citations as ABKB or Alta. K.B.) is the superior court, superior trial court of the Canadian province of Alberta. During the reign of Elizabeth II, it was named Court of Queen's ...

. On August 9, 2004, Heatherington announced her resignation effective September 10, indicating that she would be using her time to prove her innocence. Two days later, Lethbridge City Council was able to force Heatherington to resign immediately. On September 10, Heatherington received a 20-month conditional sentence, consisting of eight months of

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

followed by 10 months of

curfew A curfew is an order that imposes certain regulations during specified hours. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to remain indoors during the evening and nighttime hours. Such an order is most often issued by public authorit ...

, and 100 hours of community service and counselling.

Post-trial

On February 3, 2005, Heatherington was found guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest sentence, although this conviction did not result in any jail time. On July 27, Heatherington and her husband filed separately for bankruptcy, both citing Heatherington's ongoing legal battle. On August 16, Heatherington dropped her appeal of the mischief charge. Her lawyer stated that Heatherington could no longer afford to proceed, despite earlier claims that the bankruptcy would not affect her appeal. On November 15, 2005, Heatherington's sentence was reduced to one year from twenty months, by order of the

Alberta Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal of Alberta (frequently referred to as Alberta Court of Appeal or ABCA) is a Court system of Canada#Appellate courts of the provinces and territories, Canadian appellate court that serves as the highest appellate court in the ...

References

External links

CBC News Indepth: Dar Heatherington Timeline
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heatherington, Dar 1963 births Living people 21st-century Canadian criminals 21st-century Canadian municipal councillors Canadian female criminals Canadian politicians convicted of crimes Lethbridge city councillors Women municipal councillors in Alberta 20th-century Canadian women politicians