Fake rape victim in Bay area

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A 25-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday for allegedly lying about being sexually assaulted while working at Stanford University, according to prosecutors.

The woman later admitted to prosecutors that she made up the false claims because she was angry with a co-worker. 

Jennifer Gries of Santa Clara claimed she was raped twice while working at Stanford and told investigators that her attacker was a 6-foot man in his 20s and was Black, according to the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office.

Gries was charged with felony perjury and inducing false testimony, a misdemeanor, according to prosecutors.

Dist. Atty. Jeff Rosen called the crime “rare and deeply disturbing.”

“Our hearts go out to the falsely accused,” Rosen said in a written statement. “Our hearts go out to students who had to look over their shoulders on their way to class. Our hearts go out to legitimate sexual assault victims who wonder if they will be believed.” 

Both incidents sparked campus-wide alerts to students and staff about a possible serial rapist on campus.

In August, Gries told a nurse at the Valley Medical Center that she was approached by a man as she was walking to her car. The man pinned her to the ground in a restroom and raped her, according to an investigator’s report that accompanied the charging documents.

Gries agreed to be examined at the hospital for any male DNA left by the attacker and the samples were placed into a sexual assault forensic evidence kit.

In October, Gries claimed she was raped again while she was working in a front office at the university and forced into a basement storage closet. She described the same attacker to a nurse at Stanford Hospital.  

Each time, Gries declined to speak with law enforcement. When a detective with the Stanford Department of Public Safety tried to interview her, Gries refused to provide any additional details and only said that she knew the person who raped her, according to the report.

Gries was surprised a community alert was sent out to the campus about her first attack, an investigator’s report said. She continued to ask the detective questions about how the rapes would be investigated and what would happen to the sexual assault forensic evidence kit, according to the report. She also asked if there were any witnesses, prosecutors said.

On two separate occasions, Gries signed an application to receive benefits as a crime victim with the California Victim Compensation Board, according to authorities. 

Forensic investigators rushed to examine the evidence taken from Gries, but there was no male DNA detected from the samples.