A Stanford employee who claimed she was brutally raped on campus twice by a coworker was charged with lying as part of a revenge scheme that also put some cash in her pockets.
Jennifer Gries, 25, faces felony perjury and other charges for the sham accusations, the Santa Clara District Attorney announced Wednesday.
The Housing Services employee allegedly smeared her coworker because she felt he gave her “false intention” and “turned her friends against her,” according to court documents obtained by The Post.
“Evidence shows that the Gries made up the stories due to being angry at a co-worker,” the DA’s office said in a release.
Gries allegedly told forensic exam nurses in August that an “unknown, late 20s, black male” with a slender build and 6-foot stature attacked her while she was headed to her car inside a campus garage.
“He grabbed both my arms, had me on the ground facing up. He told me not to scream,” Gries told investigators.
Gries said the man forcibly restrained her and took her into a restroom, where he vaginally and anally raped her.
She was cagey with cops after finding out they issued a campus alert about the reported crime but said she knew who her assailant was.
Two months later, Gries reported that the same black man grabbed her arm while she was returning to her office from her lunch break and dragged her to a basement storage closet where he again raped her vaginally and anally.
In both cases, Gries was awarded public money through the California Victim of Crimes
Board, the filing shows. It’s not clear how much cash she was eligible for, but applicants can qualify for a maximum of $70,000, program documents show.
Because of the extreme safety risk to the university Gries’ allegations posed, investigators prioritized her rape kits and pushed intense security measures on campus.
But no male DNA was detected on Gries’ kits, the DA said.
Police continued to investigate as Gries’ alleged scheme unraveled. Cops issued campus-wide electronic alerts, which prompted widespread fear and a protest in October by hundreds of students who marched to demand university officials do more to protect students.
The reports sparked panic across the college community and had students fearfully looking “over their shoulders,” DA Jeff Rosen said.
An investigation found Gries was describing a male coworker who she had made a sexual harassment complaint against last March. The claims were found unsubstantiated, and she was moved to a different work location.
Gries had a history of lying about her relationship with the man, who was unnamed in the documents. She told one coworker she was in a relationship with him, but that he sexually assaulted her and left her pregnant with his twins before she suffered a miscarriage — which medical records disproved.
“Can’t I just make his life a living hell myself, ”Gries texted her coworker about the alleged assault. “I need to start standing up for myself … I am so annoyed … I’m coming up with a plan. That way he’s s—-ing his pants for multiple days.”
Gries eventually admitted to lying about the multiple rapes after she was confronted by a detective — and after Standford spent $300,000 in investigating the case and securing the campus.
She never named the coworker as her false attacker, but Gries refused to rule him out when asked point-blank.
Gries has since been placed on a leave of absence, and her employment at the university is under review.
“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. We also want to emphasize that both false reports and outcomes such as this one are extremely rare in sexual assault cases,” the school said in a statement.
“Sexual assault and other sexual offenses regrettably continue to be prevalent both at Stanford and in our broader society. 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.”
Gries wrote a letter apologizing to her victim, but he said the entire incident has “scarred” him during a time he was caring for his ill mother, who has since passed away.
“This is disgusting. I don’t feel human. I don’t feel human at all,” he reportedly told investigators with tears in his eyes.
Jorge Fitz-Gibbon contributed to this report
