Monterey County DA’s Office will not file perjury charges against former domestic violence witness

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) The Monterey County District Attorney's Office said it has finished its investigation into the testimony of one of its former domestic violence witnesses, and it will not file perjury charges.

Tara Reade was called as an expert witness on domestic violence in at least 10 cases between 2006 and 2019, but it was found that she did not hold the undergraduate degree she said she had earned and failed bar exam.

In four felony cases, Reade testified that she held an undergraduate degree from Antioch University in Seattle, but the university said she did not graduate and holds no degree from that institution.

In three cases, Reade testified that she had not taken the California Bar exam, but the DA's Office found that she took and failed the bar exam twice.

To be charged with perjury, the DA's Office would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she said information was true knowing it was false, and they would need to prove that the information would influence the outcome of the cases.

Because of the difficulty of proving that the information could influence the cases, the DA's Office will not file perjury charges. The office said it would be difficult to know beyond a reasonable doubt whether Reade's degree and bar testing status probably would have influenced the outcome, and at the time, the DA's Office said those facts were relatively insignificant compared to the rest of the evidence.

Even though she will not be charged with perjury, the contents of the investigation are being provided to defense counsel in all 10 cases. Two of the felony cases are before the 6th District Court of Appeal, and the DA's Office anticipates that the defendants will be brought to trial court in Monterey County where it will be decided whether they should receive a new trial.

Tara Reade entered the spotlight earlier this year when she accused President-elect Joe Biden of sexual assault. A lawyer who resented her said she was no longer his client the same day that allegations that she lied about her credentials were brought to light. Reade accused Biden of sexually harassing and assaulting her when she worked in his office, but Biden has denied the claims.