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NORWALK, Conn. - A Norwalk woman who reported that she had been raped in April has been arrested for filing a false report. Brittany Reith, 20, of 7 Commerce St. was charged with two counts of making a false statement. Bond was $5,000.
Anthony Lee, 30, and Joseph Gay, 30, were arrested in the case on April 7. They were exonerated on May 19.
Reith claimed that she had been abducted at about 3:30 p.m. April 6 outside of the Norwalk Equal Opportunity Now building on South Main Street. Police say they obtained video surveillance footage from NEON that did not show her getting into a car there, as she said. Instead, she walked away with Gay.
Other video footage failed to corroborate her story, police say. Instead, video from the New Canaan Avenue Wendy's validated Gay's story of having lunch with her there and then getting into a cab to head for Bridgeport. That was at the time that Reith claimed she was being held in a car and driven around Norwalk as her assailants smoked marijuana and sold drugs.
Lee had told police that Gay and Reith arrived at his 17 Sention Ave. apartment between 1 and 2 a.m. April 7. He suspected that Reith had been prostituting herself in Bridgeport because she and Gay were arguing over money she had lost, according to the affidavit. He also told police he had been working that afternoon, which police said they verified through his employer.
Gay told police that Reith had tried to prostitute herself in Bridgeport, according to the affidavit. After getting out of a cab they boarded a bus, an account verified by police, who interviewed a security guard at the bus station. The guard remembered the pair and could describe what Reith had been wearing.
Later, they went to Bishop's Corner Strip Bar, where Gay said Reith had "gotten a date." The bouncer and the manager at Bishop's remembered the pair, according to the affidavit, because she had been carded and asked to leave for being underage.
Gay said that Reith had become concerned later, in Lee's apartment, wondering how she'd explain being out all night. He said her phone had been ringing and she hadn't picked it up. He had seen the caller ID, which read "My Love."
Reith's court date is July 8.
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