Staged Waldo assault leads to guilty plea

Lindsey D. Craword, the Kansas City woman who hired a man to assault her in a ridiculous attempt to advance a sexual-harassment suit, pleaded guilty today in federal court to wire fraud.

Crawford admits that she and a friend hired man to assault them in the detached garage of her Waldo residence. Crawford and Julie R. Bernet claimed initially that two men clubbed them on the head with bottles as they exited the vehicle. Initial reports said one of the woman was sodomized by the assailants, who fled.

In fact, Crawford and Bernet hired their attacker, Gordon F. Reabe Jr. of Lee’s Summit, after meeting him at a restaurant at Harrah’s Casino on November 24, 2008. According to charges that were filed, Crawford agreed to be sexually assaulted but only if knocked unconscious.

Authorities said the women wanted the attack to look like retaliation for lawsuits they had filed against a former employer, Mercedes Benz of Kansas City.