Woman Sentenced Only 127 Days For Extortion and False Rape Charge

A Newport Beach woman was sentenced to 127 days in jail after pleading guilty today to trying to extort $15,000 from a man she met online and falsely reporting that he raped her, county prosecutors said.

Susanna Maria Coetzee, 28, met the 37-year-old victim at a dating Web site – www.seekingarrangement.com – and met him the night April 1, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

The pair went to an Anaheim hotel and had begun to have consensual sex, when Coetzee demanded money for the sex act, prosecutors said. He refused, and Coetzee told him he had raped her, prosecutors said.

She left the hotel and yelled that she had been raped, and then called 911 to report the claim, prosecutors said. She also went to Anaheim Police Department and falsely reported the victim had covered her face with a pillow and raped her, then beat her with a telephone receiver, prosecutors said.

Coetzee then sent several dozen text messages demanding the money from the victim over the next two weeks, prosecutors said. She said she would not proceed with the rape report if he gave her the money.

Coetzee was arrested at the Block of Orange on April 14. She had thought she was meeting the victim to get $5,000 cash – in exchange for a letter clearing his name, prosecutors said.