Federal officials said Friday that they are looking into reports of inflated campus crime data by the University of California, Davis.

Representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice are considering whether the school appropriately earned more than $1 million in grants for violence prevention, while the U.S. Department of Education is reviewing statistics that UC Davis reported to the government and that the university now says are false.

UC Davis announced Thursday that its reports of forcible sexual assaults during 2005, 2006 and 2007 were more than double what actually occurred. Twenty-one sexual assaults - not 48 - happened in 2005; 23 - not 68 - happened in 2006; and 33 - not 69 - happened in 2007, according to a UC Davis review of data that had been supplied by Jennifer Beeman, who directed the Campus Violence Prevention Program.

Reached by phone Friday, Beeman declined to comment on the alleged discrepancies.

The question of why Beeman would inflate campus crime statistics remained a mystery Friday. On Thursday, UC Davis officials said they didn't know why the longtime employee would do it. On Friday, they made it clear they had not asked her to explain her actions.

"It was not necessary to contact her to determine that the numbers were inflated or to determine the correct numbers, because that information was obtained and confirmed through a review of Campus Violence Prevention Program records," UC Davis spokesman Mitchel Benson wrote in an e-mail to The Bee. "UC Davis did not contact her, because there was no need to contact her."

The original numbers Beeman reported always had seemed high to some local professionals in the field of sexual assault counseling and prevention.

"Rape and sexual assaults are such an underreported crime that I was just amazed that she had so many reports on campus," said Beth Hassett, executive director of Women Escaping A Violent Environment, who said she knew Beeman through professional circles.

"The only thing I could think was that somehow she had developed great rapport with students so they felt very comfortable coming in and reporting these crimes," Hassett added.

Indeed, students do feel supported by counseling programs at UC Davis, Benson said Friday, which he said is why - even when corrected - the school's sexual assault statistics are higher than any other UC campus.

Whether using old or corrected numbers, UC Davis still reports more sexual assaults than any of its peers in the UC system, both in total numbers and on a per capita basis, according to U.S. Department of Education figures.

The new UC Davis figures show 235 forcible sexual assaults on campus from 2001 through 2007, almost double the 119 reported at UCLA, a far larger university that logged the second-largest tally.

The 77 sexual assaults UC Davis officials now say occurred from 2005 to 2007 are far fewer than the 185 they initially reported - but still 50 percent higher than the number reported at UCLA during the same period.

"It's not necessarily that more crimes are committed at UC Davis, it's that (victims) feel comfortable to come forward," Benson said. "No one has the kind of program that UC Davis has."

The school's Campus Violence Prevention Program connects victims of sexual assault, stalking and domestic violence with health care and other support services without requiring them to file a police report.

In 2007, Davis received a grant of nearly $1 million from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women to help other UC campuses improve their sexual-assault prevention programs. It had received a grant of nearly $300,000 from the same office in 2005.

Federal law requires universities to keep annual statistics on certain crimes that occur on and near their campuses and at registered student organizations. The reports are compiled from a variety of school authorities, including campus police, deans, coaches and residence advisers.

The Clery Act - named after a student who was killed in her Lehigh University dorm room in 1986 - requires universities to report the crimes to the U.S. Department of Education and to make the data widely available to parents, students and employees.

Universities that violate the Clery Act can be subject to a fine of $25,000 per incident, but the Department of Education rarely levies the fine, a spokeswoman there said Friday.

If UC Davis is fined for the reporting violations, Benson said, it will consider seeking restitution from Beeman.

Beeman retired from UC Davis in June after being placed on leave in December, when the university discovered she allegedly had overbilled for travel expenses. Shortly after placing Beeman on paid administrative leave, UC Davis switched her leave to a medical one - retroactive to Dec. 11.

UC Davis officials would not explain why the type of leave was changed or whether Beeman was disciplined in any way. But Benson did say that the university does not take disciplinary action against employees who are on medical leave, initiating discipline only if they return to work.

Beeman never came back to work before retiring June 9. She did not receive a severance package, Benson said, and will earn retirement payments based on 16 years of employment at UC Davis and an annual salary of $73,418.

Call The Bee's Laurel Rosenhall, (916) 321-1083. The Bee's Phillip Reese contributed to this report.