Two False Rape Reports in Months After Brutal California High School Gang Rape

Jan. 19, 2010 — -- In separate incidents, two California teens reported rapes that never really happened and which, if proven true, could have landed the accused in prison for life.

The false police reports were filed at the very same police department that, just three months earlier, handled the now notorious gang rape of a 16-year-old high school student at her homecoming dance.

Now police in Richmond, Calif., say they have spent tens of thousands of dollars investigating the supposed crimes before the accusers admitted that they made them up.

A 15-year-old girl told police last Friday that she had been kidnapped at gunpoint and raped by four men.

Lt. Mark Gagan of the Richmond Police Department in California said the teen offered detailed descriptions of her assailants, including tattoos and hairstyles, before confessing that she'd fabricated the rape to avoid punishment for missing her curfew. The sex, she said, had been consensual.

"She called police Sunday and recanted the story, explaining that she had left school early and had been with a few people consensually," said Gagan. "She explained she had made up the whole scenario to cover up why she was not home on time."

Gagan said that the teen initially made the police report by flagging down a bus operator at around midnight Friday wearing only her underwear. She later told police where she hid her clothes to make her story more believable.

"Fortunately, no one was detained or harmed because of this teen's false report," said Gagan.

Three weeks earlier, one suspect in an alleged rape spent three days behind bars after a 17-year-old girl claimed that he had raped her, according to Gagan.

That rape, too, ended up being a false report, said Gagan, who told ABCNews.com that the teen later told police the suspect was her boyfriend and the sex was consensual, but that a fight had led her to lie and accuse him of rape.

Gagan declined to speculate whether these teens were inspired by October's gang rape that attracted national attention.