That's because most journalists are idiots. My only point is in regard to the sentence in question:
"The woman tells police Hickey spread the substance on two pieces of toast..."
Certainly the woman only 'told' the police once, and that was in the past; she is no longer 'telling' the police at this moment. However, her 'telling' would have been executed as an affidavit or sworn statement which remains actionable as part of the investigation. IMHO, this puts it into a gray area where the journalist would have a decent justification for using 'tells'. For all we know, the writer could have been far more precise with something to the effect that, "In her complaint the woman tells police (that) Hickey spread the substance on two pieces of toast...," only to have it pared down by an editor in the interests of brevity.