A Yorba Linda woman who told police she was raped outside a gas station in Simi Valley was arrested Saturday, Oct. 7 for filing a false police report.

Dana White, 21, told Simi Valley Police Department investigators in August that as she was exiting a gas station near the 118 Freeway she was grabbed from behind, thrown to the ground and sexually assaulted.

She even gave a description of her attacker as male, black, 30 to 40 years of age and wearing a dark-colored sweatshirt and jeans.

According to police spokeswoman Sgt. Stephanie Shannon, further investigation led authorities to believe White was not telling the truth.

"Investigators were able to identify the gas station she claimed all this had occurred at, and when they went to that gas station and pulled the security tape footage, she was nowhere to be found on that tape," the sergeant said.

After confronting White with the evidence, police reports say, she confessed to making up the incident.

"She admitted to filing a false report and attributed her decision to do so to a personal problem in a relationship she was having," Shannon said.

The most troubling part of the ordeal, Shannon said, is the fact that White's lies actually led police to question an innocent resident who fit her fabricated description. Although that man was

never arrested, White created the potential for a miscarriage of justice.

"By filing a false police report, you're potentially disrupting someone's personal life on a level you can't even imagine," Shannon said. "Not to mention the case tied up a tremendous amount of investigators' time that could have been spent investigating real crimes."

White, who was released on a written promise to appear, faces misdemeanor charges that could land her in county jail.

The Simi Valley district attorney's office has not yet filed the case with the courts.

The department's disdain for the practice of filing false police reports is no secret.

"I think it's fair to say it's frustrating when you're putting all your resources into a case and you find out it's all false," Shannon said. "It's something we look at very seriously."