Robert Salonga and Jakob Rodgers
Bay Space Information Group
(TNS)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Stanford College worker who authorities say twice reported final 12 months that she was viciously dragged out of sight on campus and raped — touching off panic a couple of serial predator — is now accused of fabricating the claims as a part of a revenge plot in opposition to a co-worker.
The Santa Clara County District Lawyer’s Workplace has charged Jennifer Ann Gries, 25, of Santa Clara, with two felony counts of perjury and two misdemeanor counts of constructing a false crime report.
Gries was arrested Wednesday and booked on the Santa Clara County jail after which launched pending an April 17 arraignment date, in line with authorities and jail information. Gries works for the faculty’s housing companies. The college didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In a press release, District Lawyer Jeff Rosen known as the allegations in opposition to Gries “a uncommon and deeply harmful crime” that impacts “reputable sexual assault victims who surprise if they are going to be believed.” Assistant DA Terry Harman took that notion a step additional.
“We’re dismayed on the totally different ranges of destruction that she engaged in,” Harman stated. “If you make a false allegation of sexual assault, it’s an insult to all of those that have survived sexual assault. You might be mocking their ache and expertise and utilizing it in a manner that’s so harmful.”
An investigative abstract accompanying the felony criticism filed Tuesday signifies that Gries felt romantically spurned by a co-worker and customarily described him — a Black man in his late 20s — as her purported assailant.
She was additionally the supply of an earlier human sources criticism involving a declare she grew to become pregnant with, then miscarried, the person’s twins after he raped her, all of which was deemed unfounded. Her resentment additionally appeared in textual content messages to a different co-worker that have been reviewed by police wherein she mentioned making an attempt to make the person’s life “a dwelling hell” and that “I’m arising with a plan. That manner he’s (expletive) his pants for a number of days.”
Authorities say the person was by no means romantically concerned with Gries, and that forensic examination kits collected after the 2 rape claims yielded no corroborating proof. Months later, in late January, DA Investigator Sheena Woodland contended that Gries, in a recorded police interview, “admitted to mendacity in regards to the rapes and wrote an apology letter to the goal of the false allegations.”
Gries additionally stated “she was upset with the sufferer as a result of she felt he gave her ‘false intention’ and turned her associates in opposition to her.”
The primary rape report was made Aug. 9; Gries claimed she was in a car parking zone close to the Munger Residence Corridor when an unknown man grabbed her, took her into a toilet and raped her. The girl made the report at Valley Medical Heart, the place she went to get a sexual assault forensic examination and advised medical employees that she didn’t wish to communicate to police.
A second report by Gries was made Oct. 7, after which she went to Stanford Hospital for an additional forensic examination. She advised medical employees there {that a} man walked into her campus workplace, grabbed her and dragged her right into a basement and raped her. She equally said that she didn’t wish to discuss to regulation enforcement.
The false-report prices allege that she lied to medical employees, who made it clear that they have been required to alert police to her assault claims. The perjury counts are based mostly on her signing varieties, beneath penalty of perjury, to obtain advantages from the California Sufferer Compensation Board.
When the rape experiences have been publicized, the Stanford Division of Public Security didn’t present particulars about both assault and stated the reporting events declined police interviews. On the time, advocates for rape survivors stated that mirrored college students’ low confidence in Stanford’s sexual-assault response, pointing to a 2019 university-commissioned survey that discovered practically 40% of undergraduate girls skilled nonconsensual sexual contact and didn’t flip to the varsity for assist.
College students led a campus march after the second rape report, calling for extra counseling assist for survivors, higher coaching for incoming college students and the swift elimination of scholars and employees who commit sexual assault. The march organizer, Sexual Violence Free Stanford, reaffirmed these calls for Wednesday and stated their protest “was not for one survivor, however for all survivors that stay unheard, undervalued, and regularly victimized on Stanford’s campus.”
“Sexual Violence Free Stanford will proceed to, and at all times, imagine survivors,” the group stated in a press release.
Stanford regulation professor Michele Dauber, a outstanding critic of the varsity’s response to sexual violence who has been on the forefront of reform efforts, known as false experiences “extraordinarily uncommon” and voiced concern that Gries’ case may deter different girls from coming ahead with reputable sexual assault experiences.
“This case may be very unlucky,” Dauber stated. “However it doesn’t change the truth that 40% of feminine undergraduate college students expertise sexual violence throughout their 4 years at Stanford, and that Stanford’s response to that epidemic of violence is totally insufficient.”
Harman stated her workplace mentioned the potential chilling impact on sexual assault reporting from charging Gries however concluded they may not ignore the influence of the false experiences that unfold concern throughout campus and value upward of $300,000 in investigative and elevated safety bills.
“Once we checked out this case, it finally landed on the fact that Jennifer Gries wronged lots of people,” Harman stated. “She wronged sexual assault victims, she wronged all the scholars who have been afraid, all their mother and father, value the college tons of of hundreds of {dollars}, and inflicted nice hurt on the sufferer of her lies.”
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