CAMARILLO : Perjury Case Against Woman, 70, Dropped

Prosecutors dropped their case against a 70-year-old Camarillo woman they charged with perjury after accusing her of lying for her son in court.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. agreed to dismiss the conspiracy and perjury case against Nora Mae Griffis Friday, a week after a Ventura County jury acquitted her son of workers’ compensation fraud.

“The acquittal was a significant part of our decision,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca Riley, head of the district attorney’s workers’ comp fraud unit.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Griffis after prosecutors charged her with lying on the stand during her son’s preliminary hearing last year. She spent several hours in jail before being released the next morning on $20,000 bail.

“To see her handcuffed and paraded in front of everybody was too much,” Alan Griffis said of his mother’s arrest. “I cried my eyes out.”

Prosecutors said Nora Griffis lied when she testified that her son did not work for five months while collecting benefits in 1993. She is the bookkeeper at family-owned BGL Technology in Camarillo.

Alan Griffis had been charged with collecting nearly $7,000 in state disability checks while continuing to work at his family’s computer-sales firm.

The jury determined that he did not work during the time he collected the disability checks. He filed for the relief after injuring his neck moving a filing cabinet at the office. He said the family spent about $70,000 fighting the charges.