BY STACI WILSON

A Hallstead woman is in trouble with the law for allegedly attempting to implicate an innocent man in a recent robbery of an area Dunkin Donuts.

Charges against Michelle Shepard, 38, were bound over for trial following a preliminary hearing Monday in New Milford District Court.

Shepard faces misdemeanor counts of false reports – falsely incriminating another; and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

The man police say Shepard tried to implicate in the April 13 robbery, David DuaneIII, has been completely cleared of any involvement by investigators.

The store camera caught the robber on video. Duane does not fit the height and build of the robbery suspect. Duane also has identifying tattoos which would have been easily visible on the video, according to police.

On the stand Monday, Duane said Shepard had attempted to contact him on April 16 via text messages but he said he did not respond to the texts, nor did he call her or speak to her directly.

Duane said in one of the messages Shepard had told him to “run” and that she would do anything to help him.

She also related in a message that she had purchased a pre-paid cell phone for him to use.

Duane said a message from Shepard said the best option for him was to “Get you out of Dodge.”

He told Shepard’s attorney, John Petorak, that he never personally verified the messages came from Shepard’s phone number and that he never spoke with her about the messages.

He also said he never took possession of any pre-paid cell phone from Shepard.

Susquehanna County Detective William Strong said Shepard related to him on about April 16 that she had information about Duane’s involvement in the Dunkin Donuts robbery and another area convenience store.

On the stand, Strong said he received over 50 text messages from Shepard. Those messages, he said, were shared with Tpr. Mark Keyes who was investigating the robbery,

Strong said Shepard forwarded a message to him that she purported came from Duane indicating he wanted her to retrieve clothes worn during the robbery from Duane’s mothers house where nobody was living at the time because of damage from an October 2011 fire at the residence.

Strong said nothing was found in a search of the house related to the robbery.

Regarding the messages, Strong said a text which read as if written by Duane admitting his guilt, actually was initiated from Shepard’s phone and sent to the pre-paid cell. From there it was forwarded to police, according to testimony Monday.

With Tpr. Keyes on the stand, Attorney Petorak went through a list of people – other than Shepard – who, he said, had custody of the pre-paid phone during the timeframe of the investigation of Duane.

On the stand, Keyes said Duane had not been a suspect in the robbery until Shepard identified him as such.

Shepard is currently being held in the Susquehanna County Correctional Facility on a probation violation.