A Stanford College worker who authorities say twice reported final yr 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 in 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 creating a false crime report.
In an announcement, District Lawyer Jeff Rosen referred to as the allegations in opposition to Gries “a uncommon and deeply damaging crime” that impacts “respectable sexual assault victims who marvel if they are going to be believed.” Assistant DA Terry Harman, who's overseeing the prosecution, echoed that concept.
“Once you make a false allegation of sexual assault, it’s an insult to all of those that have survived sexual assault,” Harman mentioned. “You might be mocking their ache and expertise and utilizing it in a approach that's so damaging.”
Gries was arrested Wednesday and booked on the Santa Clara County jail, then was launched pending an April 17 arraignment. Gries works for housing companies on the college.
A joint assertion from Stanford Vice Provost Patrick Dunkley and Laura Wilson, director of the Stanford Division of Public Security, mentioned the varsity “might be reviewing” Gries’ employment in mild of the fees.
“These false experiences are damaging, each for true survivors of sexual assault and for the members of our neighborhood who skilled concern and alarm from the experiences,” the assertion reads. “Our steadfast dedication to supply compassionate help for survivors of sexual assault and to stop these acts from occurring within the first place stays unabated.”
An investigative abstract accompanying the legal grievance 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 assets grievance 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 had been reviewed by police by which she mentioned attempting to make the person’s life “a residing hell” and that “I’m arising with a plan. That approach 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 mentioned “she was upset with the sufferer as a result of she felt he gave her ‘false intention’ and turned her buddies in opposition to her.”
The first 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. She made the report at Valley Medical Middle, the place she went to get a sexual assault forensic examination and advised medical employees that she didn't wish to converse 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 legislation enforcement.
The false-report costs allege that she lied to medical employees, who made it clear that they had been required to alert police. The perjury counts are primarily based on her signing kinds to obtain advantages from the California Sufferer Compensation Board.
When the rape experiences had been publicized, safety officers didn't present particulars about both assault and mentioned the reporting events declined police interviews. Advocates for rape survivors mentioned 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 help for survivors, higher coaching for incoming college students and the swift removing of scholars and employees who commit sexual assault. The march organizer, Sexual Violence Free Stanford, reaffirmed these calls for Wednesday and mentioned 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 all the time, consider survivors,” the group mentioned in an announcement.
Stanford legislation professor Michele Dauber, a outstanding critic of the varsity’s response to sexual violence who has been on the forefront of reform efforts, referred to as false experiences “extraordinarily uncommon” and voiced concern that Gries’ case may deter different girls from coming ahead with respectable sexual assault experiences.
“This case could be very unlucky,” Dauber mentioned. “But it surely 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 mentioned her workplace mentioned the potential chilling impact on assault reporting from charging Gries however concluded they might not ignore how her alleged acts false experiences unfold concern and price upward of $300,000 in investigative and elevated safety bills.
“After we checked out this example, it finally landed on the truth that Jennifer Gries wronged lots of people,” Harman mentioned. “She wronged sexual assault victims, she wronged all the scholars who had 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.”