CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SANTA ANA
An investigator with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department was charged Thursday with filing false reports and claiming that she had contacted victims of serious crimes when she had not.
Janet Virginia Strong, a 25-year-veteran of the department, is accused of stating in her reports that no further investigation could be conducted, effectively closing the cases before a suspect was apprehended.
The district attorney’s office outlined five instances dating from 2007 in which Strong filed police reports saying that she had contacted victims of crimes and determined there should not be further investigation. In most of the cases, authorities said, Strong never contacted the victims.
The Sheriff’s Department conducted an internal investigation and presented the case to the district attorney’s office, authorities said.
Strong, 52, was charged with six misdemeanor counts. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of six years in jail.
-- My-Thuan Tran
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