| For Immediate Release Case # 09NF1216
July 9, 2009 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
WOMAN CONVICTED OF ATTEMPTING TO EXTORT $15,000 FROM MAN SHE MET ONLINE AFTER FILING FALSE RAPE REPORT WITH POLICE
FULLERTON – A woman was convicted today of attempting to extort $15,000 from a man she met online and falsely claiming to police that he had raped her. Susanna Maria Coetzee, 28, Newport Beach, pleaded guilty to a court offer to one felony count of threatening letter for extortion, one felony count of the attempt or threat to extort, and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime. She was sentenced to 127 days in jail and five years of formal probation.
On the night of April 1, 2009, Coetzee met 37-year-old John Doe for drinks after meeting him on a “Sugar Daddies, Mommies, and Babies” dating website, www.seekingarrangement.com. After meeting for drinks, the defendant went with John Doe to a hotel in Anaheim and began to have consensual sex with him. After several moments, the defendant pulled away from the victim and asked him for a check in exchange for sex. When John Doe refused, Coetzee told John Doe that he had raped her.
Shortly after, at approximately 1:00 a.m. on April 2, 2009, Coetzee began yelling that she had been raped and then left the hotel. Security at the hotel called 9-1-1 to report the rape claim and the Anaheim Police Department (APD) responded to the scene to investigate the case. Early that same morning, Coetzee went to APD and filed a false report claiming that John Doe had pushed her to the bed, covered her face with a pillow to prevent her from screaming, raped her, and hit her on the head with the hand set of the phone, which he had unplugged to keep her from making calls.
Over the next two weeks, Coetzee sent several dozen text messages to John Doe attempting to extort $15,000 from him in exchange for not proceeding with her false rape allegation.
On April 14, 2009, Coetzee went to meet John Doe to give him a letter clearing his name of rape in exchange for $5,000 in cash. The defendant was arrested by APD when she arrived at the Block in Orange for the meeting.
Deputy District Attorney Andy Manssourian of the Special Prosecutions Unit prosecuted this case.
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