LAKE MILTON AP story on sex attack is in error, cops say

The special task force never contacted Milton Township police, the captain said.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
LAKE MILTON -- Scratch this community off the list of seven sexual attacks in Ohio that a special task force is investigating, because an alleged attack never happened here, police say.
An Associated Press wire story from Cleveland, quoting FBI Special Agent Scott Wilson, listed Lake Milton among nine communities in two states linked by one possible suspect. The story said that after two northwestern Pennsylvania girls were attacked this spring, FBI agents there used a national crime-matching database to link the attacks to seven in Ohio.
The agencies involved, according to the story, include the FBI in Cleveland and Pittsburgh; the Pennsylvania State Police; the Lake County sheriff's office; and Ohio police departments in Bath, Hinckley, Boston Heights, Bainbridge, Hudson and Milton Township.
Milton Township Capt. Frank Tomaino said today his department is not a member of the task force and was never contacted by the FBI or the task force. "The first time I heard we were working with a task force was yesterday, when the news media called," he said.
The AP story was released Tuesday.
False attack
The attack reported Nov. 15, 2002, on Ellsworth Road by Brandi Wilson, 20, turned out to be false, Tomaino said. A warrant was issued earlier this year charging her with a false police report, he said.
She had been staying with her boyfriend at his parents' home on Ellsworth Road when she told police that she was attacked, Tomaino said. She remains at large, he said.
"It's unfortunate that our community was mentioned," Tomaino said. "The girl fabricated the story. We take that type of crime very seriously."
Tomaino, who responded to the call last November, said he thought something was up because Wilson was "as cool as a cucumber." He said the attack allegedly took place at 10:35 a.m. but police weren't called until 11:10 a.m. and not by Wilson, but by her girlfriend.
Covering up
Tomaino believes Wilson used the attack as a cover story to hide something else from her boyfriend, who had gone fishing with his father the night before. Tomaino said Wilson, too, had gone out the night before, met someone and had some scratches on her back that she needed to explain.
Wilson told police that, on Nov. 15, 2002, a man came to the house who owed her boyfriend's parents money, gave her the money and then left. There was another knock at the door, which Wilson opened only a crack because a pit bull inside was eager to get out.
She told police the same man who had dropped off the money forced his way in and sexually attacked her. When asked by police what the pit bull did, she said the dog licked the man's face, Tomaino recalled.
Tomaino said Wilson described the man as 25 to 30 years old, 6 feet tall and 180 pounds, with a goatee and brown hair.
Tomaino said Wilson failed to respond to a subpoena to come in for questioning and refused to take a polygraph test.
FBI Special Agent John Kane, in charge of the bureau's Boardman office, said today that he would check with the task force and determine what happened.
meade@vindy.com