from www.nydailynews.com – WABC-TV weatherwoman Heidi Jones stood silently before a judge Wednesday as she was formally charged with falsely telling cops a mystery man attacked her in Central Park.

Wearing a black skirt suit and burgundy patent leather pumps, Jones did not utter a word as prosecutors told Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Lynn Kotler Jones faces two misdemeanors – and up to a year in prison – for the alleged snow job.

The criminal complaint filed in the case says Jones, who sometimes fills in on “Good Morning America,” came clean to investigators 12 days after her initial statement.

“I did make this up. I made it up for attention. I have so much stress at work, with my personal life and with my family. I know there is no justification for it,” Jones told cops Dec. 13, according to the court papers.

In a statement to cops on Dec. 1, Jones told cops:

“I was attacked in Central Park on September 24, 2010, at approximately 1 p.m. and I was also attacked on November 21, 2010, outside of my home at approximately 7:30 a.m.”

“We’ve entered a plea of not guilty in the case,” her lawyer, Paul Callan, told reporters outside court – but while refusing to answer questions about whether Jones continues to maintains she was attacked.

Callan, who said his client would not speak about the allegations, said she’d been “vilified” in press accounts.

“There is a presumption of innocence that applies even to Heidi Jones,” he boomed from the courthouse steps.

Before the judge, Assistant District Attorney Shanda Strain said Jones made written and audio taped statements to cops Dec. 13 at the Midtown North precinct at midnight. The prosecutor did not characterize the statements.

The formal statements came after Jones ‘fessed up to sending police on a wild-goose chase for her phony Central Park attacker, police sources said.

The meteorologist even told cops that two officers refused to take a police report after the bogus Sept. 24 assault claim, sources told the Daily News.

The 37-year-old forecaster came clean but only after telling cops the same Hispanic man who tried to rape her while she was jogging in the park came to her Manhattan apartment and threatened her.

The court papers release today make no mention of a sexual assault.

Jones, cop sources said, admitted the truth as detectives grew increasingly suspicious of the vague and contradictory allegations she was making.

“Her story was inconsistent,” a source said, adding that dozens of man-hours were lost giving her extraordinary police protection and poring over surveillance footage from the park in search of a man that fit the description she gave of her attacker.

Jones, who has been with WABC since 2005, was suspended indefinitely. The station said it planned an internal investigation of the arrest.

Cops sources said she attributed the false reports to problems in her personal life.