Restaurant worker arrested; abduction attempt investigations continue
LECHIA LEWIS AKA LECHIA SMAAGAARD, LECHIA DENNIS
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, 3:45 p.m. (UPDATED Jan. 23, 2013, 11 a.m.) — The second Cracker Barrel employee who claimed she was the victim of an attempted abduction faces charges of filing a false report with police.
Lechia Lewis, 50, aka Lechia Smaagaard and Lechia Dennis, was arrested today on outstanding warrants, including two charges of contempt of court, one of which is related to her outstanding warrant from a 1994 traffic violation for failure to produce proof of insurance in Hardin County. Lewis also has an outstanding felony theft warrant in South Carolina. The charges are unrelated to the alleged abduction story that police now believe was fabricated.
Lewis works at the same restaurant as the first abduction attempt victim, and police believe Lewis created her story the day after the first victim was harassed by a man in his 50s or 60s driving a white van. Neither women went to police regarding the incidents; a Cracker Barrel manager reported both incidents to police on Sunday, Jan. 13.
In interviews with police, Lewis changed her story as police gathered additional information.
Police Chief Rick McCubbin, left, and Capt. Tom Roby brief the media about the investigation in the claims of an abduction attempt by Lechia Lewis, a Bardstown woman who was an employee at Cracker Barrel. Police believe Lewis made up the abduction attempt story. Click to enlarge.
“A cop’s ‘sixth sense’ kicked in,” Bardstown Police Chief Rick McCubbin told reporters during a press conference this afternoon. After reviewing the video provided by the restaurant chain, police found inconsistencies with Lewis’ story.
The van that was shown in a short video clip was determined to be owned by a woman who lived elsewhere in Kentucky and was at the restaurant for a meeting of goat producers. The most damning evidence that discounted Lewis’ story was the fact the video shows that she got in her car and left the restaurant 15 minutes prior to the white van’s departure.
“There were holes in her story,” Capt. Tom Roby said, but Lewis remains adamant that the incident actually occured. “She was changing her story to fit the evidence. The video doesn’t lie.”
Lewis has not yet been charged in connection to the alleged abduction attempt. The investigation remains open, but suspended in Lewis’ case, McCubbin said. It remains to be seen if Lewis will be charged in the incident. Though she remains adamant that the incident happened, McCubbin said she may be charged. “We won’t tolerate anyone falsely reporting an incident,” he said.
FIRST VICTIM WAS HESITANT TO GO TO POLICE. The first victim who was verbally harassed by a man in a white van in the Lowe’s parking lot did not go to police after the incident. She believed the incident was a case of overzealous flirting and nothing more. It was a Cracker Barrel manager who contacted police after hearing about Lewis’ incident.
Roby said the first victim told him the incident with the man in the van isn’t new. “She told me, ‘If you’re a waitress, you’re going to get hit on.'”
REMAINING INCIDENTS. McCubbin said his department continues to investigate the incident, and that Louisville Metro police are following up on leads related to the two incidents in Jefferson County. “We consider the other incidents are credible,” he said.
Roby said he and the department’s two detectives have been working leads in the abduction attempts, with three to five officers involved at any give time. The department has investigated numerous reports of suspicious-looking white vans, and continues to do so, he said.
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