Woman charged with making false reports
A Cardale woman was formally charged with unsworn falsification Wednesday after she reportedly admitted to cutting up her body and claiming to state police that she had been sexually assaulted last month.
Leah Dawn Saluga, 30, of 2054 Main St. was in the emergency room of Uniontown Hospital when she first talked to Trooper Heather L. Clem on Feb. 20 and claimed she was sexually assaulted multiple times by a man who believed she killed his dog.
Saluga told police that she was walking on Narrows Run Road in Luzerne Township when she was approached by “a man dressed as a woman with a dog collar,” according to the affidavit of probable cause.
The man said she killed his dog and put a dog collar around her neck and forced her into the woods, Saluga told police.
There, she said he forced her to perform sex acts on him multiple times and tried to rape her, Saluga reportedly told police.
Clem indicated that Saluga reported the suspect got mad at her and cut her with a razor blade on her face, chest, arms, legs, breasts and vaginal area.
The words “dog killer” were carved into her left arm, and Saluga told police her purported rapist did that as well, police alleged.
“Due to the nature of her injuries and reports, several troopers and other police officers responded to the location, canvassed the area for the suspect and location of the incident,” Clem wrote.
The day after her alleged assault, Saluga wrote out a statement for police.
During a subsequent interview, Clem alleged Saluga admitted that she had concocted the entire story and cut herself.
The charges were filed before Magisterial District Judge Mike Defino Jr., and a preliminary hearing on the misdemeanor charge will be held at a later date.