Police: Woman lied about domestic assault

A Sedalia woman was arrested Monday on charges she lied to police about her boyfriend assaulting her and threatening her with a gun.

Coleta M. Tull, 34, of the 1300 block of East Seventh Street, was arrested on a charge of making a false report, a class B misdemeanor. She was released from Pettis County Jail Monday on a $1,000 bond.

Tull allegedly lied to police about a fight Jan. 2 with Benson Winkler, with whom she lived. According to a probable cause statement filed by Sedalia Sgt. Phil Stewart, Tull told officers Winkler pushed her, choked her until she couldn’t breathe and threatened her with a loaded rifle. She also told them Winkler had forced her 15-year-old son to sleep in a vehicle when the temperature dropped to 9 degrees.

Officers later arrested Winkler on a charge of second-degree domestic assault.

Pettis County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Mittelhauser sent a letter to officers May 2 with statements from Tull, her son and her daughter that contradicted the statement she made in January, according to court documents.

“The new statements indicated that Tull was not choked by Winkler, that no gun was produced and no threats of gun use or references to a gun were made,” Stewart wrote in his statement.

Tull admitted when she was questioned May 2 that she had lied to police in her the original statement. She also said that Winkler didn’t force her son to sleep outside, but the teen had done so by choice because he was upset about not being allowed to keep a puppy.

“When asked, Tull stated she had lied to the police about Winkler’s actions because she was mad at him,” Stewart reported.