Here’s a guy who lied to his wife about having tickets to Oprah’s farewell show — then faked his own mugging to cover up the false promise.
Now he’s facing jail time for filing a false report — and who knows what kind of trouble he’s got at home.
Robert Spearing, 44, of Ontario, Canada, drove his wife to Chicago last week with a promise that they would see the taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” finale — a four-hour, star-studded “Farewell Spectacular” that was taped Tuesday night.
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But just before showtime, Spearing — bleeding from the forehead and his hands badly scraped — filed a report with cops claiming he had been mugged and the tickets stolen.
He said two men — one African-American, one Hispanic — had attacked him on the street.
Police searched for the assailants, but after cops questioned him again, he allegedly admitted it was all a fabrication.
He inflicted the wounds himself, cutting his own forehead with a rock and scraping his hands on the pavement, he told the cops, according to a document filed in a Cook County court and posted yesterday on The Smoking Gun Web site.
It was all done, “so he would not disappoint his wife for not getting the tickets,” the court document said.
Spearing was charged with disorderly conduct and filing a false police report, both felonies.
Several times, authorities offered Spearing, a Canadian citizen, a chance to talk with a representative from the Canadian Consulate, but he declined, a police source said yesterday.
He spent the night in jail before being released the next day on $2,000 bond, which a court spokesman said was posted by “a relative.”
Attempts to reach Spearing yesterday at the address he gave police were not successful.
He had been trying to get his wife into what will be Oprah’s last open show.
Some 13,000 fans — who got tickets through a lottery on Oprah’s Web site — partied most of the evening at Chicago’s United Center arena while celebrity guests — including Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Maria Shriver and Madonna — wished Oprah farewell as she ended her TV show after 25 years.
The gala aired over two days — yesterday and today.
Spearing is due back in court tomorrow — at around the time Oprah’s final show, taped in front of an invitation-only audience, will be airing.