A Stanford University employee allegedly lied about being raped twice on campus last year – and even pinned the crimes on an innocent person, police said.
Jennifer Ann Gries, 25, is facing two felony charges after she visited two separate hospitals last year to report phony attacks where she said she had been dragged into rooms and sexually assaulted, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office said.
“These false reports are damaging, both for true survivors of sexual assault and for the members of our community who experienced fear and alarm from the reports,” Stanford University said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
Gries allegedly first reported she was sexually assaulted in August to staff at Valley Medical Center in San Jose. She told a nurse that a man she described as a “Black male, slender, young, 6 feet, late 20s” grabbed her from a campus parking lot and dragged her into a restroom, where he assaulted her, the DA said.
LAW PROFESSOR FALSELY ACCUSED OF RAPE WINS DEFAMATION CASE
Gries then went to Stanford Hospital in October for a second rape examination, this time claiming that she was returning to her office from a lunch break when she was grabbed by a man who took her into a basement closet and raped her.
Gries also claimed that she had become pregnant with twins after the incident but suffered a miscarriage, something the DA’s office said was not back up by the evidence.
“The investigation revealed that she was not pregnant at that time,” the DA’s office said, according to CBS.
However, the accusations began to unravel quickly, with prosecutors saying the rape examination kits were immediately analyzed by authorities because of the extreme public safety risk of a potential sex offender prowling the school, but the lab results from the exam “were not consistent with her story,” officials said.
Gries signed a consent form after both alleged incidents that acknowledged the nurses who administered the exams were mandated to inform law enforcement. She also signed forms that allowed her to receive public funds from California Victim of Crimes Board, which can award victims up to $70,000. Prosecutors did not say how much Gries was awarded.
FALSE RAPE CHARGES HURT REAL VICTIMS
During a January interview with a DA investigator, Gries admitted to lying about the accusations and penned an apology letter to the man she targeted with the false accusations.
“She stated she was upset with the victim because she felt he gave her ‘false intention’ and turned her friends against her,” prosecutors said.
The university said that Gries has been placed on a leave of absence and that Stanford “will be reviewing her employment,” noting in the statement that cases of false rape reports remains rare.
“Sexual assault and other sexual offenses regrettably continue to be prevalent both at Stanford and in our broader society,” the university said. “Our steadfast commitment to provide compassionate support for survivors of sexual assault and to prevent these acts from occurring in the first place remains unabated.”
DA Jeff Rosen also said false rape accusations are “a rare and deeply destructive crimes” while expressing sorrow that for not only those who were falsely accused, but students who were left scared in the aftermath of the incidents and “legitimate sexual assault victims who wonder if they will be believed.”
Gries faces two felony counts of perjury and two misdemeanor counts of making a false crime report.
