CLEARLAKE >> The Lake County District Attorney’s Perjury Investigation Unit arrested Danee Kristine Patterson, 23, on Wednesday. She faces two felony counts of perjury, one felony count of filing a false affidavit to the court and one misdemeanor count of making a false police report.
This case came to the Perjury Investigative Unit as a result of several allegedly false reports made to the Clearlake Police Department and other agencies by Patterson.
In an application to obtain a restraining order and custody of a child, Patterson had filed with the court an affidavit alleging the assault by her employer. And on May 12, 2016, she testified in the family law trial that she never had a romantic relationship with her employer and that her employer had assaulted her.
As Clearlake Police officers investigated the matter, they concluded she was in fact having a romantic relationship with her employer, that the child was theirs and that the assault never occurred. Patterson later admitted to the police that she had made up the story to gain advantage in the pending custody battle over their child.
In a separate civil proceeding on March 17 of this year, Patterson again testified that she did not have a romantic relationship with her employer and that the employer had assaulted her. During that court hearing an investigator with the District Attorney’s Perjury Unit was in court monitoring the testimony.
Patterson faces a maximum of a seven year sentence for her perjured testimony.
Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson established the Perjury Investigative Unit in June of 2016 in an attempt to curb false testimony in criminal, civil and family law courts. This is believed to be the only District Attorney Office in the United States to establish a perjury unit with the specific intent to prosecute perjury cases.
The Lake County District Attorney’s perjury unit has been recognized by agencies throughout the country including the American Bar Association and the California District Attorney’s Association.
