Pittsburgh Council Member Wants Apology In Political Attack Case

Ricky Burgess Wants Apology From McCain Campaign

Pittsburgh police said a 20-year-old woman who originally said she was robbed and assaulted at knifepoint in Bloomfield because of her political views made the story up.

Now a Pittsburgh city councilman wants an apology from the McCain-Palin campaign.

Ashley Todd -- who has a backward letter "B" scratched into her right cheek -- confessed to faking the story that she was attacked at a bank ATM because of her political views.

Read The Story:Police: Woman With 'B' Scratched In Face Faked Political Attack

Todd, of College Station, Texas, admitted there was no robbery or attacker and said she had prior mental health problems, according to Bryant.
Raw Video: Watch The Police News Conference

In his letter to the campaign, Ricky Burgess said local media outlets, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and KDKA, were given information about Todd's assault claims by McCain's Pennsylvania campaign communications director.

"That one of your campaign spokespersons would spread such an incendiary story before any confirmation of the facts is both irresponsible and runs counter to our nation’s Constitutional guarantee that no one be denied life, liberty or property without due process," Burgess said in the letter.

Read The Letter:
Burgess Letter To McCain-Palin Page 1
Burgess Letter to McCain-Palin Page 2

Burgess cites reports on the "Talking Points Memo" Web site and quotes KDKA's news director as saying the McCain campaign's communications director gave one of his reporters details of the false report, including the fake quotes from the imaginary attacker, all before police confirmed details.

MSNBC quotes a WPXI reporter as getting that information from a McCain campaign spokesman as well.

Burgess wants an apology for "inflaming the divisions of this country."

"I don't know why they chose to push this story. But it just seems suspicious to me that they would target this story, which has a fictional African-American person harming a non-African-American person in this city," Burgess said.

A McCain spokesman tells Channel Four Action News "The liberal blog post that the councilman cites has no basis in fact. The McCain campaign had no role in this incident. We hope the young woman involved in the incident gets the help that she needs. It's disappointing that Pittsburgh law enforcement time and resources were wasted by her false allegations."

WTAE's news director Bob Longo said Channel 4 Action News confirmed all of its information about what was in the police report with city police before the story aired.

The McCain campaign did not comment to us until after our story aired.

WPXI's news director tells us his station did not air any details until they were confirmed by police as appearing in a police report.

KDKA's news director has not returned our call for comment.

Todd, who faces charges of filing a false report, spent the weekend in jail. Police said they were concerned about her safety after she admitted to them that she sometimes blacks out and doesn't remember things.

Todd will also undergo a psychiatric evaluation, police said.

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