City prosecutors are deciding if criminal charges are warranted in the case of a woman who accused a man of kidnap and rape before withdrawing her complaint a day after he was arrested, according to the city prosecutor's office.

Police opened a criminal investigation into whether the 44-year-old woman broke the law by falsely accusing the man, a convicted felon, of rape. Investigators recently completed their investigation and forwarded evidence to city prosecutors, who are deciding whether to charge the woman with a misdemeanor.

Police and city prosecutors declined to discuss the false-report case, and prosecutors would not give a timetable for deciding whether to pursue charges against the woman.

The woman had told police she was kidnapped and raped after her car overheated and stalled April 11 on Pu'uhale Road near Homerule Street in Kalihi Kai.

Police called a news conference to ask for the public's help in finding the attacker. Officers distributed a sketch of the attacker and a description of the car the attacker drove, based on information provided by the woman.

A CrimeStoppers tip led to the arrest of Ricky N.L. Albano, 44, on April 19. Albano was released without charges on April 20.

"False reports are not frequent," said Michelle Yu, police public information officer. Filing a false report is a misdemeanor, police and city prosecutors say.

The most common such cases involve leaving the scene of an accident, said city Deputy Prosecutor Rich Stacy. In a typical case, a car is found abandoned at the scene of an accident and traced to a registered owner. The registered owner, rather than own up to the accident, tells the officer his car was stolen, Stacy said.

The false report is either discovered or the filer admits the lie, Stacy said.

"It's not very common, but we've charged for that," he said.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.