False rape report leads to 1-year term

A Dana Point woman who told police she was kidnapped at gunpoint and raped by six men was sentenced Thursday to 360 days in jail after confessing that she had made up the crime.

Tamara Anne Moonier, 30, was arrested after one of the men brought forth a video that showed the woman was a willing participant in a night of sex.

In court Thursday, a tearful Moonier pleaded for leniency and said she was remorseful.

Moonier, who works as a receptionist at a woman’s fitness center, said she had suffered from mental illness, depression and bipolar disorder since her teenage years, and is on prescription medication. She is currently in divorce proceedings and a custody battle for her 14-month-old child.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Carla M. Singer said that if Moonier was well behaved during the first 90 days in jail, she could serve the remaining time under house arrest, officials said. Moonier was also ordered to repay more than $2,000 to the state for financial aid she received for being an alleged victim of violent crimes.

Moonier, who had no criminal history, pleaded guilty in July to two felony counts of making false police reports and one count each of perjury and grand theft. She was facing a maximum of four years and eight months in prison.

Moonier went to Fullerton police June 6 and reported that she had been abducted outside a bar at gunpoint then taken to an unknown location and raped, authorities said. But police later determined that she agreed to go to a house and have sex with the men, which was videotaped.

One of the men showed police the 40-minute tape that depicted Moonier orchestrating some of the sex, authorities said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Chrisopoulos said the woman’s punishment was not harsh enough.

“I wanted her to serve all year in custody,” Chrisopoulos said. “She exposed these men to a lifetime in prison. To serve a year in prison is minuscule to what she was accusing these men of.”

The six men, who were not arrested or charged, would have faced life sentences had they been convicted.

mai.tran@latimes.com