Lehighton woman charged with lying about rape
A meeting of two people on a dating site named "OK Cupid" turned out to be anything but romantic.
Lehighton police said they received a report from a woman who said she met a man on the site and he raped her.Still, she had a second meeting with the man.Police said it wasn't rape after all; that instead she got angry at him and sent him text messages threatening to claim rape.The woman, Rhonda W. Celoso, 64, of Lehighton, has been charged by police with unsworn falsifications to authorities and making a false report.A hearing on the charges, both misdemeanors, is scheduled at the office of District Judge Edward M. Lewis in Jim Thorpe on June 8. She is also scheduled to be arraigned on the charges at that time.Det. Scott S. Prebosnyak of the Lehighton Police Department said in the affidavit:On April 13 the department received a call to report to Blue Mountain Health Systems, Gnaden Huetten Campus for a reported rape and assault.The responding officer was Matt Arner, who spoke with the "victim," Celoso, who police said "is now classified as the defendant."Celoso told police that on March 22, she met a man named Ira Gordon on the OK Cupid dating site and they subsequently met for breakfast.About a week later, Gordon came to her apartment and forced himself on her, she told police.She told Arner she hadn't reported it because Gordon threatened her and family members.She told police Gordon came to her residence again on April 12. She said he went to the kitchen "and retrieved a butcher knife." She said he handed the knife to her and she gave it back to him.The next day, she went to the hospital.When police interviewed Gordon, he said they had a meeting in her apartment.Then on April 12, they met again because Celoso was going to have him meet a friend.The affidavit says, "The defendant then began texting Mr. Gordon inquiring his location and asking him to come back. These texts went on all day but Mr. Gordon refused to respond. The text then became angry and personal."It continues, "She then began texting him that since he used her she was gonna report that he raped her."Police said they have copies of the texts.Police also said the Celoso provided them with a written statement that Gordon did not rape her or assault her with a deadly weapon, as she also had claimed.