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Tampa Woman Charged With Filing False Report On Attack

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By MIKE WELLS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 5, 2008

TAMPA — A Tampa woman who said she was attacked while jogging on Countryway Boulevard was charged today with filing a false report, officials said.

The Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office has charged Dawn Marie Batik, 39, with a first-degree misdemeanor, Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said.

"After reviewing the facts of the case, we determined charges should be filed," Bondi said.

She declined to elaborate.

On Dec. 19, Batik told Hillsborough County deputies she was jogging when she was attacked at 8:20 p.m. on Countryway at Peabody Lane in the Harbor Links subdivision.

She gave authorities a detailed account of a man wearing a hooded jacket grabbing her and pulling her into a wooded area. She said she clung to a tree and that the attacker punched her head, slammed it into the tree and choked her, before running off.

Batik was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital for treatment of multiple lacerations.

Four days later, the sheriff's office announced the story was false and that her wounds were self-inflicted.

A telephone message left at Batik's residence was not immediately returned.

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