Toronto- A 1990s Playboy model and B-movie actress is back in the news after a bizarre TTC subway slashing and purse- snatching attempt.
Lisa Heughan, 38, appeared in College Park court yesterday charged with robbery, assault with a weapon, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a weapon and uttering threats.
Heughan will be back for a bail hearing Monday.
The trouble started Sunday on a TTC train when Heughan allegedly tried to steal an elderly woman's purse as the subway pulled into Queen Station, according to a TTC press release.
A man witnessing the attempted purse snatch took Heughan's picture with a cellphone, police said.
She got angry and focused on the man as the elderly woman fled on the train. Heughan pulled a knife on the man, slashing his back before fleeing the train at Bloor station, police allege.
Using an image of the woman captured on surveillance video, TTC special constables were able to recognize the suspect Wednesday as she walked through Yonge-Bloor station. They arrested her and transported her to 53 Division where she was charged.
The alleged subway slashing and purse-snatching attempt is a long way from gracing the pages of Playboy.
In August 1990, Heughan appeared in the men's magazine as part of a "Girls of Canada" pictorial.
Aside from photos, Heughan appeared on several TV shows including Degrassi Junior High and in a 1997 movie titled Cannonball Rollerbabes. She played Spike, the leader of the Rollberbabes gang.
But amid the fame there was always trouble.
In 1992 she claimed she was harassed by U.S. immigration agents at Pearson airport and four years later she claimed she was a victim in a 20-year-old child-molestation case.
By 2004, a pregnant Heughan avoided three criminal offences -- assault, threatening bodily harm and mischief -- after agreeing to sign a peace bond for allegedly throttling a doctor's assistant.
A year later, police were hunting for her again after she kidnapped her six-week-old daughter from a supervised CAS visit. She was given a suspended sentence for abducting her baby and triggering an Amber Alert.
That same year she appeared on the Howard Stern Show. A few weeks later the American shock jock aired a couple of voicemail messages she left for the host after her appearance on a segment awarding money for the worst stand-up comic. Heughan lost the competition but shortly afterward called one of Stern's phone lines back to leave a vulgarity-laced message.
TTC spokesman Brad Ross said they hope the elderly woman will come forward with the publicity around the arrest. A robbery and assault with a weapon is rare on the TTC system, Ross stressed.
