San Mateo, CA–“Prosecutions for filing a false police report are relatively rare in San Mateo County and often don’t result in much jail time, if any, Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
“Defendants convicted of the offense and sentenced to jail often serve that time in the sheriff’s work program, picking up roadside trash or similar tasks, Wagstaffe said.”
It’s rare that a woman goes to jail for making a false rape claim, even though false claims are common. In this case it happened, though–see the San Francisco Chronicle article below.
(As an aside, note her idiot husband–she cheats on him and makes a false rape accusation, and he apparently still wants her. I’ll give you 10 to 1 odds that within five years he’ll be filling out my Family Law Help Form.
He’ll be under a restraining order, booted out of his house, unable to see his kid, and in arrears on his child support, and then he’ll write to me for help. And he’ll be shocked that I don’t know of a pro bono attorney who’s willing to drop everything he’s doing and go work for him for free.)
San Mateo woman who lied about sex attack to fool husband gets 90 days
John Cote, Chronicle Staff Writer
February 26, 2008
A San Mateo woman sentenced to 90 days in county jail for lying about being sexually assaulted at gunpoint by a group of men made up the story to deceive her husband after coming home from a date, authorities said.
Karyn Galila, 24, sobbed Tuesday in a Redwood City courtroom as Commissioner Kathleen McKenna ordered her taken into custody immediately. Galila was handcuffed as her husband looked on. He tried to hug her before she was led away, but was ordered by a bailiff not to touch her.
Galila apparently concocted the story of being assaulted after her SUV broke down in Foster City to explain to her husband why she had come home late after rendezvousing at a restaurant with a man she had recently met online, according to her probation report.
“This was such a detailed, fabricated story,” said McKenna, the San Mateo County Superior Court magistrate who handled sentencing. “This kind of conduct does warrant a jail sentence.”
Galila was arrested after initially telling police she had been sexually assaulted the night of June 12 when her Jeep sport utility vehicle broke down on Foster City Boulevard. She admitted she had lied when she said a group of as many as five men had pushed the Jeep onto a nearby street, then assaulted her at gunpoint.
A fingerprint from Galila’s SUV led investigators to Robert Salapuddin of San Mateo, whom they arrested on unrelated outstanding warrants for felony forgery and misdemeanor embezzlement, prosecutors said.
Salapuddin, 25, had met Galila online and the two decided to meet at a local restaurant that evening, prosecutors said. Police initially focused on him as a possible participant in the alleged assault, but he was able to produce a receipt from the restaurant and a witness who placed both him and Galila there when the assault was supposedly taking place, authorities said.
Galila pleaded no contest Dec. 31 to one misdemeanor count of filing a false police report.
“She at this point is still struggling to figure out why she conducted herself the way she did,” Galila’s attorney, Earl Jiang said at sentencing. “She is genuinely sorry for her conduct.”
Jiang pleaded for leniency, saying Galila had a young child to care for. But prosecutor Rebecca Baum argued that Galila’s actions warranted jail time, saying they could have led to Salapuddin being wrongly incarcerated. McKenna agreed.
Salapuddin was released in July upon pleading no contest to a single count of misdemeanor embezzlement after spending 17 days in jail, prosecutors said. Under his plea deal, he was sentenced effectively to time served.
He is now a fugitive after an arrest warrant was issued for him in November because he failed to pay $900 in restitution in that case, prosecutors said.
Galila, a dental assistant, now faces jail time and a court order to pay police about $5,000 to cover the cost of their investigation.
Jiang said outside court that he was disappointed in the sentence, calling it “harsh.”
Prosecutions for filing a false police report are relatively rare in San Mateo County and often don’t result in much jail time, if any, Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
Defendants convicted of the offense and sentenced to jail often serve that time in the sheriff’s work program, picking up roadside trash or similar tasks, Wagstaffe said.
The unique element in Galila’s case was McKenna’s decision to have her jailed immediately, forcing her to apply from behind bars for an alternate sentencing program, Wagstaffe said.
“It’s a very, very unusual step,” Wagstaffe said. “I think it was because the conduct was outrageous. We have a criminal justice system that is based from A to Z on being able to rely on the truth of our victims.”