San Mateo mom gets 90 days for concocting story of sex attack

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/26/8 | John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer

[SmithL]

REDWOOD CITY -- A San Mateo mother who lied about being sexually assaulted at gunpoint by a group of men after her car supposedly broke down in Foster City was sentenced today to 90 days in jail for filing a false police report.

Karyn Galila, 24, sobbed 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.

"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 to authorities when she said a group of as many as five men had pushed the Jeep onto a nearby street, then assaulted her at gunpoint.

Forensic evidence collected from Galila's SUV led investigators to Robert Salapuddin, 25, of San Mateo, whom they arrested on unrelated outstanding warrants for felony forgery and misdemeanor embezzlement, police said.

Police described Salapuddin as an acquaintance of Galila's who had met with her at a local restaurant earlier that evening. They 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 there who identified him, authorities said.

As Galila's story continued to unravel, she admitted she had made up the assault. She pleaded no contest Dec. 31 to one misdemeanor count of filing a false police report.

[Slapshot68]

Um, wouldn’t a rape kit test pretty much nullify her story right away?

[stinkerpot65]

So that would exclude pictures like

this...

Warning: Graphic photo. Adults only.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

How long did the prostitute in the Duke LaX case get?

/sarcasm

[wolfcreek]

I had an old girlfriend who used the *I was Raped* excuse.

I was a little tipsy at the time and grabbed my shotgun to go and confront the man. Luckily, I came to my senses and went back to the house.

I found out later she’d just gotten caught *screwin* around.

[MEGoody]

This woman disgusts me. This kind of thing makes it that much harder for real victims of assault to be believed.

[Nonstatist]

90 days? Thats it? What a stinking double standard exists in this country. Misandry is built into the system, it sure pays to be a woman when we’re talking about sentencing, thats for sure.

[tbw2]

Notice the “Mom” in title. THat probably reduced her sentence.

[microgood]

I agree but would change it to the MAXIMUM sentence.

That would put an end to at least 97% of this.

I disagree. This whole notion that sentencing people to super heavy sentences sends a message to everyone is false because:

(1) Most people will never even know this happened, especially those most likely to do it.

(2) Our generation has the highest encarceration rate in the world (5 times as many in prison/per hundred thousand as any other period in our history since the 70s) and yet this kind of stuff still happens.

The current generation's solution to every problem is pass a law and throw everyone in jail. And yet, although it may make some people feel better, nothing changes.

[microgood]

I agree but would change it to the MAXIMUM sentence.

That would put an end to at least 97% of this.

I disagree. This whole notion that sentencing people to super heavy sentences sends a message to everyone is false because:

(1) Most people will never even know this happened, especially those most likely to do it.

(2) Our generation has the highest encarceration rate in the world (5 times as many in prison/per hundred thousand as any other period in our history since the 70s) and yet this kind of stuff still happens.

The current generation's solution to every problem is pass a law and throw everyone in jail. And yet, although it may make some people feel better, nothing changes.

[monday]

“The current generation’s solution to every problem is pass a law and throw everyone in jail. And yet, although it may make some people feel better, nothing changes.”

This is not something new. It has always been against the law to falsely accuse someone of a crime. I agree that it isn’t going to stop people from committing crime, but who cares? If you falsely accuse someone of a crime you should be punished just as severely as if you had committed that crime. It’s not about “feeling good”, or about deterring crime. It’s about justice.

[ricks_place]

The big picture should be the focus for intelligent readers. Robert Salapuddin could have assaulted Karyn Galila. The physical evidence rebuffed the assault but that is not the essential truth. Robert is a man and people recently gossipped about his aggressive tendencies. - New York Times Top Reporters

[microgood]

I agree throwing everyone in jail is not the solution to all things BUT in this case, this is a person deliberately lying to put someone else in trouble with the law for whatever agenda they have.

I would have to agree that this type of crime is especially aggregious, but she did not actually identify an individual, like in a lineup or something, and when they went looking for a possible perp they actually snagged someone with outstanding warrants.

[microgood]

If you falsely accuse someone of a crime you should be punished just as severely as if you had committed that crime. It’s not about “feeling good”, or about deterring crime. It’s about justice.

I agree to a certain extent generally. In this case, however, she did not specifically identify anyone. And in the process of looking for suspects they nabbed another criminal. If she had identified someone in a lineup, though, that would be a totally different story.