A 20-year-old woman who sparked alarm throughout South County of a predator on the loose after she reported being sexually assaulted in the same area as another recent attack has been charged with misdemeanor counts of filing a false police report and resisting arrest.
Danielle Rene Deichman of Laguna Niguel could get a year and six months in jail if convicted. She's currently out on $500 bail and due in a Newport Beach courtroom March 4 for arraignment.
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On Jan. 25, a woman was sexually assaulted along Alicia Parkway in Laguna Hills. Eight days later, Deichman allegedly told Orange County sheriff's deputies that she was similarly victimized in the same general area. She supposedly told of being grabbed from behind and knocked to the ground around 7:30 p.m. on La Paz Road in Laguna Niguel, adding that she kicked her attacker in the nuts and escaped.
Two reports that close together in time and location prompted media outlets to warn South County women that a sexual predator may be on the loose.
But in a follow-up interview with sheriff's detectives on Feb. 3, Deichman's story had more holes than Swiss cheese, according to the sheriff's office (which used language not quite as flavorful).
The young woman is said to have cracked, admitting she made up the whole thing. But as Deichman was being cuffed while being placed under arrest, she is alleged to have run away before being subdued by two female investigators.
Tack on resisting arrest, Danny!
According to prosecutors, the arresting officers sustained minor injuries while subduing Deichman.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.