Stanford University employee charged with making 2 false sexual assault allegations

A Stanford University employee was arrested on Wednesday for lying to authorities about two alleged incidents of rape that she says took place on the California campus, prosecutors said.

According to the complaint, obtained by NBC News, Jennifer Gries, 25, of Santa Clara, was arrested on two counts of perjury and two counts of perjury after an investigation found she had twice brought false rape charges against someone fitting the description of a black co-worker, in what Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen called a “rare and deeply destructive crime.”

The false assault reports — which did not identify Gries by name — “triggered campus-wide security alerts and unrest on campus,” the prosecutor’s office said. They also spurred national media coverage, including by NBC News, which covered the two false assault reports, as well as a student protest on campus in October after the second false report.

“These false reports are detrimental, both to actual survivors of sexual assault and to members of our community who have felt fear and concern as a result of these reports,” officials said Wednesday. Stanford in a statement, noting that evidence shows that false reports of sexual violence are extremely rare.

In fact, research has shown that false reports account for 2-8% of reports of sexual assault, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. And black men in particular have long been falsely accused of sexual assault. Five black and Latino teenagers, for example, were wrongfully jailed for six to 13 years for the 1989 rape of a white jogger in New York’s Central Park before their convictions were overturned in 2002.

“Sexual assault and other sexual offenses unfortunately continue to be prevalent at Stanford and in our society at large. Our unwavering commitment to providing compassionate support to survivors of sexual assault and preventing these acts from happening in the first place remains. unchanged,” Stanford’s statement continued.

The university’s public safety department spent more than $300,000 investigating the false reports and hiring outside security officers, according to the probable cause document.

Gries, who works in the university’s housing services department, was released on $25,000 bail and an arraignment is scheduled in San Jose on April 17, a spokesperson for the prosecutor said.

She faces five years in prison if convicted, the spokesperson said.

It was not immediately clear if she had an attorney. Gries did not immediately respond to texts and emails from contacts listed under his name Wednesday morning.

According to a LinkedIn profile under her name, she has worked at Stanford since August 2020 — first as a front desk assistant and most recently as a housing services center supervisor.

Gries is on leave, officials said in the statement released Wednesday, adding that they would “review his employment in light of the information shared” by the prosecutor’s office.

A university spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether the falsely accused colleague is still employed.

Two false declarations in two months

Gries first told county forensic examination nurses at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center on Aug. 9 that she was attacked by a black man in his late 20s in a bathroom near Wilbur Stanford Hall, according to the district attorney’s office. He said she alleged she did not want to contact law enforcement and that the assailant was an “unknown assailant”.

After seeing the ensuing campus security alert, Gries contacted Stanford’s Department of Public Safety to speak with a detective about criminal proceedings. When they met on August 17, she “refused to divulge further details of the alleged sexual assault”, but said she knew the alleged perpetrator and did not believe the public was in danger. She also asked the detective ‘if Human Resources would be made aware of this report’ and ‘said she did not expect a community alert or the incident to make the news,’ the document states. probable causes.

The detective told him that the university had received “numerous questions from concerned parents of Stanford students about campus safety.”

Less than two months later, on Oct. 7, Gries again reported to a sexual assault nurse at Stanford Hospital that she had been raped on campus — this time, she said, by a black man. twenties in a basement. closet.

In both cases, according to the probable cause document, she signed a consent form acknowledging that the nurses were mandated reporters who were to inform law enforcement of reported sexual assaults and that they would submit her name to law enforcement. order with a suspicious injury report. This led to the two misdemeanor charges of inducing false testimony, the complaint states.

Both of Gries’ sexual assault exam kits “have been analyzed as high priority emergencies given the extreme risk to public safety of a potential sex offender,” the prosecutor’s office said. According to the probable cause document, “laboratory reports showed no male DNA detected in the genital or oral areas” for the two rape kits.

Evidence revealed that ‘Gries made up the stories because she was angry with a co-worker,’ the prosecutor’s office said, adding that she had twice requested, under penalty of perjury, funds from the California Victim. of Crimes Board – which reimburses crime-related expenses. – stating that she had been sexually assaulted. She has not received any funds from the entity, a DA spokesperson said.

‘I can’t just make his life hell’

A Stanford Public Safety Department investigation found Gries filed a sexual harassment complaint against a co-worker who matched the description of the alleged rapist — a black man in his 20s — last March and a resource investigation human resources found that the complaint was without merit, according to the probable cause document. She was later moved to another workplace, he said.

The investigation also concluded that she told an acquaintance that she was in a relationship with this colleague, that he had sexually assaulted her and that she had become pregnant with twins before having a miscarriage.

But Gries wasn’t actually pregnant, the inquest found. And text messages between her and the acquaintance showed Gries discussed the co-worker’s alleged sexual assault, blaming herself for the alleged assault and saying, “I can’t make her life hell myself.” according to the probable cause document.

On Nov. 3, Gries again met with the same Stanford public safety detective she had previously spoken with and “confirmed that she personally knew the attacker.” She also “asked what would happen if she provided a name,” and the detective said “she would speak to this person and others who knew them both,” the probable cause document states. .

When the detective told Gries that she already knew who was being pictured, Gries “became visibly distraught, hyperventilated, and fanned” before saying “she needed air and started crying.” She left and then texted the detective that she was going to the ER because she felt overwhelmed, according to the probable cause document.

On Jan. 24, Gries met with the detective again and “admitted to lying about the rapes and wrote a letter of apology to the target of the false allegations who was the same person as the HR investigation, the victim.” , depending on probable cause. document.

“She said she was angry with the victim because she felt he gave her a ‘false intent’ and turned his friends against her,” it read.

In an interview with authorities, Gries’ colleague ‘denied any sexual or romantic contact’ with her and said the HR investigation had ‘scarred’ him and caused him extreme stress as he went cared for his sick mother, who died later. He also provided supporting evidence of his whereabouts at the time of the alleged assaults, and he provided a swab for DNA analysis, according to the probable cause document.

He told authorities that the false accusations had made him “disgusting”.

“I don’t feel human. I don’t feel human at all,” he said, according to the probable cause document.

The students react

Campus sexual violence prevention advocates said the false reports should not distract from the prevalence of sexual violence at Stanford.

“This example of an unsubstantiated allegation does not change the fact that 40% of female-identified undergraduate students at Stanford will be sexually assaulted while on campus,” Sexual Violence Free Stanford, a group, said on Instagram Wednesday. defense of student rights. , referring to the results of a 2019 survey.

“Not only are large percentages of sexual violence on campus going unreported, but the rates of sexual violence misrepresentation are almost always comparable – if not lower – than other crimes,” he added.

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