Nancy Salas, the former UCLA student who told police in May that she had been kidnapped and assaulted, has been sentenced to 100 hours of community service and three years of informal probation.
Salas dropped out of UCLA in 2008 when her grades no longer qualified her for an academic scholarship.
She continued to tell family and friends she was attending classes and would graduate in June with the class of 2010 to avoid telling them that she had dropped out of school.
Then in May, she ran away and called police from Merced, saying she had been kidnapped. Salas later changed her story to say she faked the kidnapping.
The Glendale native faced Judge Glenn Ritchey in Merced County, where she pled no contest to one misdemeanor charge of providing false information to a police officer, said Jeffrey Tenenbaum, Salas’ attorney.
In addition to the community service, Salas must pay $878 to the Glendale Police Department in restitution for a medical exam for sexual assault, as well as about $260 in other, standard court fines, said Tenenbaum, a UCLA alumnus.
Salas could have faced up to six months in jail, but the judge decided not to give her any jail time, Tenenbaum said.
“That was essentially the judge’s decision,” Tenenbaum said. “I think he recognized that she was willing to do the community service hours, and this was her first offense.”
Tenenbaum said Salas is currently working in Glendale to complete her community service and pay her fines.
He added that her goal is to eventually graduate with a college degree, although this may or may not involve re-enrolling at UCLA.
“There’s obviously other options to finish her degree at other schools,” he said. “She’ll be evaluating that over the next year or so.”
Tenenbaum said for now, Salas is working on putting the past behind her and looking forward.
“She’s a sweet girl, she knows she made a mistake,” he said. “And she wants to take responsibility.”