OC Couple Arrested for Allegedly Planting Gun, Drugs to Frame Woman

Two Laguna Hills residents were arrested Thursday for allegedly trying to frame a woman by planting weapons and drugs in her truck and calling police to get her arrested.

Jennifer Michele Beale, 37, and Kevin Brown, 42, are accused of planting a BB gun, a 12-inch hunting knife and methamphetamine in the bed of a truck belonging to a 40-year-old woman they know, Senior Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Nichols said.

The next morning at 5:50 a.m., Beale sent an email to the Orange County Crime Stoppers organization to falsely report she saw the woman waving a gun around during an argument, Nichols alleged

A few hours later, she allegedly called 911 and filed another bogus report alleging she saw the woman -- whose name was withheld -- waving a gun during an argument, the prosecutor said.

Orange County sheriff's investigators found the gun and drugs in the victim's truck when they went to her home, but she recognized the sunglass case packed with methamphetamine as allegedly belonging to Beale and investigators turned their focus to the two defendants, according to Nichols.

The two are expected to appear in court Monday on felony charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, false imprisonment and making a false report, and misdemeanor counts of making a false report of emergency and altering evidence.

According to the Orange County District Attorney's office, Brown also faces a sentence-enhancement allegation for having a prior conviction for second-degree burglary in 2010 in Los Angeles County.

The prosecutor declined to comment on what allegedly motivated Beale and Brown to try to get the woman arrested.

City News Service and patch staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report. Photos Courtesy of the Orange County District Attorney's Office