Someone asked me about this story yesterday and I said, just wait a while and we’ll see. Now the McCain campaign worker who claimed to have had a backward B carved in her cheek by attackers has admitted it was a hoax. Law enforcement officials did their job here. To their credit, many bloggers reserved judgment on this story, while relaying press accounts as they appeared. Story is here. (Hat tip Campaign Spot at NRO)
Police tell KDKA that a campaign volunteer has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.
Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.
Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.
Authorities, however, declined to release the results of that test.
Investigators did say that they received photos from the ATM machine and “the photographs were verified as not being the victim making the transaction.”
This afternoon, a Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Todd confessed to making up the story.
The commander added that Todd will face charges; but police have not commented on what those charges will be.
Authorities are expected to release more details at a news conference this afternoon.
According to police, investigators working on the interview process detected several inconsistencies in Todd’s story that differed from statements made in the original police report.
Pittsburgh Police Public Information Officer Diane Richard released a statement earlier today, saying: “Because of the inconsistencies in her statements, Ms. Todd was asked to submit to a polygraph examination which she agreed to do.”
No photos of Todd are being released by Pittsburgh Police at this time.