Darlene Heatherington is a Canadian politician who was forced to resign her city council seat in Lethbridge, Alberta in 2004 after being convicted of public mischief.

On May 3, 2003, Heatherington first made Canadian and international headlines when she disappeared from a conference in Great Falls, Montana. Three days later, she was found in Las Vegas, Nevada, alleging that she had been abducted and raped. Police found her report to be inconsistent and lacking evidence, and she eventually recanted. She was charged with filing a false report to police, but pled not guilty. She continues to allege that the incident happened as reported, and that the police coerced her into recanting her original statement.

Previously, Heatherington had filed reports with Lethbridge police that she was being stalked. She was receiving sexually explicit letters from her stalker, but her reports often did not match police surveillance evidence. On June 10, 2003, she was charged with public mischief after police concluded that the stalker did not exist, and that Heatherington was likely writing the letters herself. On September 8, she pled not guilty to those charges as well.

On June 29, 2004, Heatherington was found guilty of public mischief. Although required by law to resign following her conviction, Heatherington refused, and Lethbridge city council initiated the process of having her removed through the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench .

On August 9, 2004, Heatherington announced her resignation, indicating that she would be using her time to prove her innocence.

It has been alleged that Heatherington invented both incidents in order to cover up an extramarital affair, but this claim has not been proven.

On September 10, 2004, Heatherington received a 20-month conditional sentence, consisting of eight months of house arrest followed by 10 months of curfew, and 100 hours of community service and counselling.