Investigation Launched Over Bogus Tiger Woods Child-Abuse Claim

Official demands probe suggesting "somebody in celebrity-entertainment" may have phoned in allegation

Tiger Woods has one person sticking up for him.

A Florida lawmaker is demanding the state's Department of Children and Families investigate whether someone filed a false report alleging child abuse against the disgraced golfing great and his wife, Elin Nordegren, after news broke about his sex scandal.

Republican state Sen. Ronda Storms sent a letter to DCF Secretary George Sheldon stating that whoever placed the Dec. 11 phone call to an abuse hotline urging authorities to check on the welfare of Woods' cubs caused needless trauma to the family and she believed it was done to "keep the media celebrity attention going."

"To use the resources of the state for some grand celebrity theater is completely unacceptable," wrote the ticked-off politico, per South Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper. "It robs children who are legitimately in danger."

So what was the verdict when child services dropped in at Casa Woods?

Following the Dec. 13 checkup, the agency deemed the tykes safe. At the time, authorities said such visits were standard operating procedure when it comes to allegations of domestic violence, but that isn't stopping Storms from being PO'd.

"Call me a cynic, call me skeptical but it's not beyond the pale to think that this was done by somebody in the celebrity-entertainment circle," she told the Sun-Sentinel. "I don’t think that stretches credulity to arrive at that conclusion. But it could just as well have been some person, like a hanger-on, just a person who follows celebrity."

In asking for a probe, Storms says she wants to see that whoever filed the false report be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

In a response sent Dec. 30, DCF Secretary George Sheldon wrote, "We are currently reviewing the available information surrounding this investigation."

No word on whether they have any leads in the case. A spokesman for the Orange County State Attorney's Office in Orlando, where Tiger and Elin have their home, told E! News that so far as they're concerned, DCF has not contacted them to investigate the matter which, in any case, would need the blessing of the Woods clan before it could proceed.

If caught, the culprit could be facing possible criminal charges carrying a five-year prison term and fines of up to $10,000.