College student pleads guilty to lying about rape on campus
A Michigan college student pleaded guilty to falsely reporting to campus police that she was attacked and raped.
Mary Zolkowski, 21, admitted in court Tuesday that she lied to authorities about being raped by a stranger in the parking lot of Delta College in Bay City, according to MLive.
“I called Delta College and falsely reported the rape on their campus,” Zolkowski told the judge, according to the site. “My mother made the initial call and I took the phone and continued to report.”
The student claimed she was silently suffering from a separate incident when she reported the bogus crime to her mom Feb. 22.
“I was assaulted previously, not at Delta’s campus,” Zolkowski said. “And because I was ashamed of circumstances of that, when my mother called, I vented through Delta, which was very wrong of me. I should have been truthful from the very beginning, and I used Delta.”
In police interviews, Zolkowski said she walking to her car when an unknown man grabbed her from behind. She claimed in her initial account that the stranger raped her without a condom while holding her face and throat.
Zolkowski, however, refused a medical examination and didn’t have any bruising consistent with the alleged injuries, authorities said.
Investigators first noticed discrepancies in her story when they contacted school officials about her claim that she dropped her classes after the attack. The school informed the officers that she dropped the courses prior to the supposed incident.
Police met with Zolkowski, who changed her story again — reportedly claiming that the suspect was an acquaintance. Authorities met with the alleged assailant, who showed them texts from the 21-year-old claiming she was raped later in the day by a stranger, according to MLive.
In a third interview, Zolkowski allegedly gave yet another version of events — telling police that she wanted to tell the suspect to stop during sex but ultimately did not.
She was arrested and charged with one count of false report of a felony. She faces up to four years in prison and a $2,000 fine.
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