Woman previously arrested for stalking has now been charged with filing a false report of sexual battery against a Tampa man

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Rachael Jaime Austin, 32, has been charged with making a false report and fabricating evidence related to accusations she made against a Tampa man; Austin allegedly created an email address in the man’s name to send nude pictures of herself to multiple people and accused him of sexually assaulting her.

The case began on February 7, 2023, when Austin went to a hospital for a sexual assault kit and said she had been sexually assaulted by a man from Tampa. She also showed officials a text message from the man’s phone number that contained a threat to kill her. Austin later told an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy that she knew the man through her ex-boyfriend and showed the deputy several text messages from a number that she said belonged to the man. The messages included a nude photo of Austin, and texts from the number included statements about how easy it had been to break into her house and sexually assault her. She asked to pursue criminal charges against the man.

The man was interviewed in March 2023, and he reportedly said he had never met Austin and only knew of her through her ex-boyfriend, a friend of his. He provided his vehicle information, and a deputy confirmed that the vehicle had not hit on any local cameras around the time of the alleged incident.

A few days later, the deputy received an email with the same nude photos from a different email account; the message was from “RJ Morely” but was signed as if it came from the Tampa man and was also sent to 18 other recipients, including several City officials from a town in Oregon. Another email from the man’s email account said “he” knew the deputy was involved in the case (although, as the deputy noted, the man had already met in person with the deputy) and stated, “You’re not going to arrest me, I work for the FBI and the Russian Mafia so if I get touched by you I will find out where you live and I will shoot your entire family.”

The deputy noted that “RJ” are Austin’s first and middle initials, and Morely is her dog’s name.

The investigation was suspended because the deputy left the agency; he returned in October 2023, after Sheriff Emery Gainey was appointed.

The deputy began another investigation when Austin was arrested in January for stalking another ex-boyfriend using the Tampa man’s phone number. The deputy learned that Austin had three cell phones at her mother’s house, and a warrant for the phones was obtained.

One phone was reportedly signed into a Gmail account that used the Tampa man’s name but was allegedly created by Austin. The deputy also found evidence connecting Austin to the “RJ Morely” email account.

Austin has been charged with filing a false report of sexual battery and fabricating evidence.

After her arrest on January 20, she posted $250,000 bail and was released. On February 10, she was arrested again for battery on a person over 65. However, on March 13, her attorney filed a motion for release on her own recognizance since formal charges had not been filed, and the charges were dropped on March 14. However, in the meantime, the arrest caused the judge in the January case to revoke her bail in that case. She is currently being held without bail in the stalking case, and Judge Denise Ferrero set bail at $40,000 on the new charges.

Austin also has pending charges of second-degree making a false incident report, disorderly conduct, and second-degree harassment following an arrest in Connecticut on June 20, 2023.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.