One woman has been cleared, and her sister charged, after a woman bared her breasts
at motorists on the Broad Street North overpass Tuesday night.
A woman charged Tuesday night with the Highway Traffic Act offence of stunting falsely
identified herself to police as Dawn Keepness, a police spokesman said. Staff Sgt.
Hal Zorn confirmed Thursday a follow-up investi-gation determined Dawn Keepness,
38, wasn't the topless woman. The charge against her has been dropped.
Late Thursday afternoon, police laid charges against Keepness' 34-year-old sister,
Dannette. Dannette Keepness has been charged with stunting, obstructing justice
by giving police a false name, and breaching conditions of an undertaking. Stunting
is a general section of the Highway Traffic Act that applies to anyone who is distracting
traffic, whether they are driving a vehicle or not.
Dawn Keepness first learned her name was linked to the incident Thursday morning.
"I was having my morning coffee and reading the newspaper when I saw my name
in (Thursday's) paper. I was so shocked. I didn't go to school today because I couldn't
face seeing my fellow students. I knew I would be in for a lot of ribbing. It is
so embarrassing," she said.
At the time police were arresting the suspect Tuesday night, Dawn Keepness was at
home with her brother and boyfriend.
"It's a really unfortunate situation for the person who is wrongly identified.
But we had no reason to believe the person we arrested who identified herself as
Dawn Keepness wasn't who she said she was," Zorn said.
The incident began at about 10 p.m. Tuesday after several motorists called police
to report a topless woman walking on the north Regina bridge.
According to police, traffic on the bridge, which crosses the Ring Road and provides
the main access into Regina's Uplands neighborhood, was backing up as motorists
slowed down to watch the woman.
The woman, who police said appear-ed to have been drinking, was arrested, charged
and released later that night.