A 43-year-old woman who claimed she was raped while hiking the Oneonta Gorge has been convicted of initiating a false report.

Prosecutor Don Rees said Angela Gilbert, of Southeast Portland, said she was hiking the offshoot of the larger Columbia River Gorge April 1 when she was attacked, but her story fell apart within weeks. Multnomah County Sheriff's investigators learned of the alleged attack after Gilbert went to a hospital for a rape exam. Her husband also called a local TV station to talk about the attack. Neither directly called police.

Gilbert and her husband told investigators that they hadn't been intimate in a month, but sperm collected during her rape exam came back a DNA match for her husband. Rees said Gilbert eventually confessed that she'd made up the story, and that she'd inflicted injuries upon herself -- such as scratching a stone against her neck.

"There was a degree of fear and panic on the part of individuals, understandably, that there was a rapist on the loose in the Gorge," Rees told Judge Angel Lopez. "It is a matter that triggered a search in the Gorge, a criminal investigation ...and ultimately cost the taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars ...when the defendant knew this was a fabrication for reasons only known by herself."

Rees also said that Gilbert has lied to authorities before: She claimed she had been robbed while shopping, but the claim turned out to be false. She wasn't charged in that case.

Monday, Gilbert pleaded no contest to misdemeanor initiating a false report. When the judge asked why Gilbert wasn't outright pleading guilty, defense attorney Melissa Chureau said her client still believes she was raped, but knows the prosecution has the evidence to prove she made up the story.

Gilbert said months of investigation have been traumatizing.

"My biggest concern is my family and everything they've been through," Gilbert said.

As part of a plea agreement negotiated by the attorneys, Lopez sentenced Gilbert to two years of probation, 80 hours of community service, mental-health and drug treatment and a $1,000 compensatory fine to be paid to the sheriff's office.

Chureau said her client already is seeing a therapist for post traumatic stress disorder. Chureau declined to say what caused the disorder.

Gilbert also declined to speak to The Oregonian after the hearing.

Rees said fake reports of rape are very rare. In 2011, a 35-year-old woman was convicted of initiating a false report after she lied about two men raping her behind the Gresham Borders bookstore during its liquidation sale in the middle of a summer afternoon.

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