Speaker 1: After the family court judge made her ruling, there was
Speaker 1: a long wait to see if Laura would be criminally charged.
Speaker 1: Clayton wanted Laura to face consequences.
Speaker 2: We also were like, are we asking for too much
Speaker 2: to get her prosecuted? The only when is her being
Speaker 2: held accountable?
Speaker 1: He wasn't the only one who felt that way. Shortly
Speaker 1: after Clayton's trial, content creator Megan Fox launched a letter
Speaker 1: writing campaign. The goal was to try to get the
Speaker 1: attention of Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell so that her
Speaker 1: office would pursue criminal charges against Laura Owens.
Speaker 3: All I did was put the idea out there, write
Speaker 3: a couple of templates for people if they had a
Speaker 3: problem writing, and asked them to do it. The fact
Speaker 3: that people sat down and did this, that's organic. They
Speaker 3: licked stamps, put them on envelopes and sent them in.
Speaker 3: I know that Attorney Mitchell, while she out a lot
Speaker 3: of letters, Laura.
Speaker 1: Had offended a lot of people directly and indirectly, and
Speaker 1: this was their chance to be heard.
Speaker 4: Here's Megan again.
Speaker 3: I'm a big believer in writing paper letters because if
Speaker 3: you send emails, nobody reads them. But if they get
Speaker 3: faxes and paper letters that you have to dump on
Speaker 3: their desks, just like in Miracle on thirty fourth Street.
Speaker 3: They can't ignore you, and they really start to think, Wow,
Speaker 3: there's a real problem here. People cared enough to walk
Speaker 3: to the mailbox and send me a letter, and you
Speaker 3: have to be heard, and the next thing, you know,
Speaker 3: action starts happening.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just random Reddit users writing letters to Rachel Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Some of the letters were from people who'd been personally
Speaker 1: impacted by Laura Owens, like Danielle Marriccini, Mike's wife. Here's
Speaker 1: what Danielle wrote.
Speaker 5: I said, Dear Rachel Mitchell, my name is Danielle Marriccini,
Speaker 5: and I am writing to you not only as the
Speaker 5: wife of Michael Marriccini, but as a mother and a
Speaker 5: woman deeply affected by the ongoing trauma inflicted upon my
Speaker 5: family by Laura Michelle Owens. Michael has been the direct
Speaker 5: target of Laura Owens's manipulative and malicious behavior, and it
Speaker 5: has caused serious emotional, psychological, and reputational harm. Her actions
Speaker 5: have gone far beyond the boundaries of conflict or disagreement.
Speaker 5: They have been tormenting, targeted, and entirely destructive. She has
Speaker 5: continuously made efforts to disrupt our lives, spread falsehoods, and
Speaker 5: create division within our personal and professional circles. Over the
Speaker 5: past several years, I have had to sit through two
Speaker 5: separate court hearings, one in twenty twenty and another in
Speaker 5: twenty twenty four, both initiated by Laura Owens falsified claims.
Speaker 5: I was pregnant with each of my daughters during those proceedings.
Speaker 5: To endure such stressful and emotionally charged legal battles while
Speaker 5: expecting our children was incredibly traumatic. As a result of
Speaker 5: her actions, I have endured in stress and anxiety, and
Speaker 5: our family has lived in fear and uncertainty for far
Speaker 5: too long. The relentless nature of Laura's behavior has caused
Speaker 5: sleepless nights, strained relationships, and has affected our ability to
Speaker 5: feel safe in our own lives. We are pleading with
Speaker 5: your office to take a closer look at this case,
Speaker 5: not just as a legal matter, but as a human one.
Speaker 5: What Laura Owens has done is not only harmful but unjust.
Speaker 5: We need accountability, and more importantly, we need protection. I
Speaker 5: asked that you consider the long standing pattern of emotional
Speaker 5: abuse and manipulation of Laura Owens.
Speaker 4: I'm Stephanie Young, and this is love trapped.
Speaker 6: There's no way.
Speaker 7: You better believe.
Speaker 1: I'll be raising Holy Helps if you ever, ever, ever ever.
Speaker 7: Trash.
Speaker 1: After Clayton's trial, there was a groundswell of support for
Speaker 1: people who'd been victimized by Laura Owens. Mike Marriccini wrote
Speaker 1: a letter of his own to the prosecutor. It was
Speaker 1: not only a plea for them to take Laura's action seriously,
Speaker 1: but an offer to help their investigation in any way
Speaker 1: he could.
Speaker 8: I said, listen, I have all of this information here.
Speaker 8: I would love to share this with you. She's going
Speaker 8: to try to make all of our lives hell. Please
Speaker 8: look at this information. And she responded within I would
Speaker 8: say two hours and said I'm including my investigators on
Speaker 8: this case. They'll be reaching out to you. They called
Speaker 8: me within another hour and they're like, when can we
Speaker 8: come to you.
Speaker 1: Mike sent them evidence he had collected, including what he
Speaker 1: had on his old laptop. Within a week, the investigators
Speaker 1: flew to California to interview him.
Speaker 8: For several hours at my house and they didn't give
Speaker 8: me any details of what they were looking into, but
Speaker 8: they said they traveled all over the US and they
Speaker 8: were taking this case very seriously.
Speaker 1: They were looking for proof of any criminal behavior. I
Speaker 1: reached out to Rachel Mitchell's office to see if they
Speaker 1: would weigh in for this podcast. They wrote back saying
Speaker 1: that she's unable to comment given that this is an
Speaker 1: open case. But Rachel Mitchell did give a public update
Speaker 1: at a press conference in August of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 6: I was talking to one of the investigators working on
Speaker 6: it this morning about an update, and I know they're
Speaker 6: going through it quickly. They've talked to a number of people,
Speaker 6: and as you can imagine, it's gathering information from a
Speaker 6: number of different sources, medical courts, et cetera. So they're
Speaker 6: busy working on that.
Speaker 1: At the end of episode seven, you heard Clayton's family
Speaker 1: court trial and the judge's ruling. After that, there were
Speaker 1: months of waiting. Rachel Mitchell's office carried out their investigation.
Speaker 1: As we talked about in the last episode, Laura stayed
Speaker 1: busy by posting online telling her side of the story. Then,
Speaker 1: on the morning of January twenty ninth, twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: twelve police officers in tactical gear showed up at the
Speaker 1: Owens family home. They were there to execute a search
Speaker 1: warrant of the Owens property, looking to find evidence that
Speaker 1: would support their growing criminal case against Laura Owens.
Speaker 7: Play search war.
Speaker 1: The twelve cops split up, with one group going around
Speaker 1: back to the casita where Laura lived. It's a detached
Speaker 1: studio apartment behind the main house. Another group of officers
Speaker 1: went to the front door where Laura's parents lived.
Speaker 9: And Ron Laura Blase search warrant opened the door.
Speaker 1: Pay What you're hearing is the real audio from the
Speaker 1: officer's body cams. This wasn't the Scottsdale p ds first
Speaker 1: trip to the Owens home. Over the last few years,
Speaker 1: they've been there at least four times to conduct welfare
Speaker 1: checks on Laura. Most of those calls were triggered by
Speaker 1: anonymous tips from people concerned about the suicidal ideation she'd
Speaker 1: been posting online. On this day, the police stood at
Speaker 1: the front door, repeatedly knocking.
Speaker 10: Police search warr.
Speaker 11: Jan War or Ron.
Speaker 7: Opened the door.
Speaker 1: You can hear motion from behind the door. It's Laura's mom, Jan,
Speaker 1: but she's not opening it even for the police.
Speaker 7: We're the police department.
Speaker 9: Jan scott Sell Police to Detective Buckner with the Scott
Speaker 9: Sell Police Department. We have a search warn Okay, we're
Speaker 9: serving on the behalf of the Maricopa County's Attorney's office.
Speaker 11: You need to open up the door.
Speaker 1: In an odd turn of events, with twelve police officers
Speaker 1: on her property.
Speaker 10: She says she's calling the policeman.
Speaker 1: But Jan still won't open up the door.
Speaker 10: Dan, we do not want to breach your door.
Speaker 9: We will if we have to the door, Daan, we
Speaker 9: will ran your door where you're not.
Speaker 7: We don't want to do that.
Speaker 10: We don't want to damage your door.
Speaker 8: Just pop the door and talk to us.
Speaker 1: After two long minutes, Jan finally opened the door to
Speaker 1: speak with the group of officers waiting outside.
Speaker 8: Hello, I are you out of the police apartment?
Speaker 7: Okay, okay, We're not here to hurt you.
Speaker 10: We're not here to do it.
Speaker 8: I God, we can talk to your daughter.
Speaker 1: The officers made their way into the main house. Almost immediately,
Speaker 1: the scene turned chaotic. Everyone was talking over one another
Speaker 1: and the confusion was palpable. The cops want eyes on
Speaker 1: everyone in the house, and they find Ron still in bed.
Speaker 9: Regarding that, regarding Aura right entry, taking my character right now,
Speaker 9: you're good to move to the casida.
Speaker 1: When the cops approach the casida, they find Laura standing
Speaker 1: there behind a sliding glass door.
Speaker 10: Laura, Police, it's the police.
Speaker 12: What it's the police department, Laura, scott Stale Police, you
Speaker 12: see my badge.
Speaker 1: Laura cracks open the sliding glass door, but leaves the
Speaker 1: screen door in place with the.
Speaker 13: Scott step police department. Okay, can you come out and
Speaker 13: talk with us police?
Speaker 12: No, the county attorneys have a search warm for your property,
Speaker 12: so we need you to come out.
Speaker 13: Okay, I'm sorry, it's not even seven in the morning.
Speaker 10: That's fine.
Speaker 13: I'm not comfortable having you. I don't know who you
Speaker 13: guys are. I just told you I know, but I'm not.
Speaker 13: I don't I'm not comfortable of opening my.
Speaker 4: Screen behind her.
Speaker 1: You can see into her casita. This body cam video
Speaker 1: is our first real look into Laura's private world. The
Speaker 1: floor is covered in clothes, even in the kitchen area
Speaker 1: and bathroom on the opposite wall. The pile of clothes
Speaker 1: is so high it reaches the bottom of the window.
Speaker 1: The drawers hang open overflowing. Honestly, every single surface is
Speaker 1: covered in stuff. The counters and bedside tables are buried
Speaker 1: under papers, random electronics, even multiple pill bottles. Resting on
Speaker 1: top is what looks like a pink Victoria's secret shopping bag.
Speaker 1: The walls are decorated with those motivational art prints, like
Speaker 1: one by her bed that reads you got this, another
Speaker 1: in her kitchen that seems to read everything is figure outable.
Speaker 1: The cops are trying to calm Laura down.
Speaker 12: Okay, well, if we were going to handle this more escalated,
Speaker 12: we were just forced our way in.
Speaker 8: But we're not doing that.
Speaker 12: We're trying to handle this as low key as possible.
Speaker 13: I was told that if the police were going to
Speaker 13: calm they would come during business hours. Can I call
Speaker 13: my attorney please, I'm not comfortable.
Speaker 10: You can call your attorney, that's fine.
Speaker 13: Let me call my attorney.
Speaker 14: Great.
Speaker 13: Is something I'm concerned about my parents?
Speaker 15: You guys, your guns drawn right now? Nobody's pointing like
Speaker 15: I can't tell anybody you know what I do. My
Speaker 15: parents know that somebody's here.
Speaker 12: Yes, we have officers talking with your parents right now.
Speaker 1: I've seen this footage more than twenty times, studying it
Speaker 1: from every available body cam angle, and I want to
Speaker 1: be clear. While the officers are armed. Their guns are holstered,
Speaker 1: not drawn, but Laura is shaken. Her hands are visibly trembling.
Speaker 12: I'm giving you an opportunity. I told you we have
Speaker 12: this search warmer, and let me have.
Speaker 13: My my parents out here and on the phone.
Speaker 16: Because I own I am.
Speaker 10: I have to just listen to me.
Speaker 12: Okay, I've been nothing but respectful to you.
Speaker 13: No seven o'clock in the morning. Let me just call
Speaker 13: my attorney. Okay, you call my attorney.
Speaker 1: Laura starts firing off demands, but even as she's talking,
Speaker 1: she's still refusing to actually open the door.
Speaker 8: Open the door.
Speaker 17: Can I just We're going to cut the screen and
Speaker 17: come in.
Speaker 8: If you don't, you can't if.
Speaker 7: It's screening, isn't even incredible. I'm on the phone with
Speaker 7: my attorney. I'll put him on the phone right now.
Speaker 12: This is my.
Speaker 16: Attorney, David Gingris, my attorney, David Gingers.
Speaker 15: I don't know who you guys are even do you
Speaker 15: think I'm authority to search before seven o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 10: But the police are there.
Speaker 13: Laura, okay, fine.
Speaker 17: I need it.
Speaker 7: There's seven of them in here.
Speaker 1: After hearing from her attorney, Laura opens the screen door.
Speaker 1: One of the men grabs her phone out of her hands.
Speaker 7: Don't grab my phone and take it.
Speaker 13: I need to speak to you. Guys have guns, you
Speaker 13: know what you guys literally know.
Speaker 7: My dogs.
Speaker 10: Stay inside, all right, we're.
Speaker 8: The mom's inside.
Speaker 13: I speak to my mom. You guys have guns.
Speaker 7: I'll speak mom.
Speaker 10: I'm taking to her right now. Okay, okay, we have
Speaker 10: contact with her. We are escorting her out.
Speaker 1: The body cam continues as officers escort Laura into the
Speaker 1: main house. Meanwhile, the group of officers who were already
Speaker 1: inside the main house, we're waking up Laura's dad, Ron Owens.
Speaker 1: Ron asked why the police were there.
Speaker 10: So Laura is a subject of an investigation by the courts.
Speaker 10: So it's regarding it's regarding that.
Speaker 9: Okay, So it's gonna be We're gonna come in here
Speaker 9: and they'll explain it to you and they'll give you
Speaker 9: a copy of the search warrant.
Speaker 1: Ron asks to see the search warrant and wants to
Speaker 1: know the officer's badge number.
Speaker 10: The badge for a seconds, Yeah number, it is fourteen
Speaker 10: twenty two. Is my badge number. Okay, we're gonna I'll
Speaker 10: leave it here for you.
Speaker 1: The officer attending to Ron stays incredibly patient and helpful.
Speaker 1: You have to remember Ron has dealt with a lot
Speaker 1: of health issues over the years, and he actually needed
Speaker 1: a hand just getting out of bed.
Speaker 10: Let me get you your walker. Okay.
Speaker 1: The officer hands him his robe and calmly explains exactly
Speaker 1: what's happening.
Speaker 10: Yeah, because I guess Laura has been a little bit uncooperative,
Speaker 10: and they will. You can talk to the investigators. Okay,
Speaker 10: they'll have all the details. We're just helping them out
Speaker 10: with the service of the warrant.
Speaker 1: As Ron gets out of bed, he looks at the
Speaker 1: officer and warns him about Laura.
Speaker 10: She is basically suicidal. She's suicidal. She has mentioned it, don't.
Speaker 12: You dear.
Speaker 5: She will.
Speaker 1: Before the officer could finish his conversation with Ron, Laura
Speaker 1: comes into the house, guided by two officers. You can
Speaker 1: see they're handling her with extreme care, using what's known
Speaker 1: as an escort grip, one hand on the wrist and
Speaker 1: the other just above the elbow to keep things controlled
Speaker 1: but steady. It doesn't look like they're using excessive force,
Speaker 1: but Laura feels otherwise, and she's not quiet about it.
Speaker 7: Please you, you.
Speaker 1: Were you were hurting me, they passed right by her
Speaker 1: father's bedroom.
Speaker 10: I want to see.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's what I want. I want to see my father.
Speaker 3: You are hurting me, and there's to be.
Speaker 7: A report for what you have done. I guarantee you.
Speaker 7: I will have bruises from this. I guarantee you. I will.
Speaker 7: I'd like to see my father. Please.
Speaker 10: No, I don't know where my mom here.
Speaker 1: The moment Laura sees her mom, jan she frantically runs
Speaker 1: straight to her. She says the police are horrible, inappropriate.
Speaker 1: But between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty five, Laura
Speaker 1: reached out to the Scottsdale Police for help nearly twenty times.
Speaker 1: She was the one contacting them, saying she'd been the
Speaker 1: victim of harassment, press leaks, and restraining order violations. Now
Speaker 1: that the tables had turned and she was the one
Speaker 1: being investigated, Laura suddenly finds their presence inappropriate. She cries
Speaker 1: to her mother that she's not sure if the police
Speaker 1: are real or not.
Speaker 18: I said I didn't know they were.
Speaker 7: They still don't even know they got me.
Speaker 1: And then Laura hits her breaking point. She turns and
Speaker 1: delivers the one line that, in many ways has come
Speaker 1: to define this entire case.
Speaker 7: You know what, it's not even seven o'clock. I am
Speaker 7: done nothing and get pregnant by the fighting bressler.
Speaker 1: Okay, I say I'm going to kill somebody now. Remember
Speaker 1: this video was recorded in January of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Six months earlier, it had been adjudicated that Clayton the
Speaker 1: Bachelor wasn't the father of Laura's alleged twins because, according
Speaker 1: to the judge, she was never pregnant. But she's sticking
Speaker 1: with her story. Laura then hears her dad beginning to
Speaker 1: shuffle into the room and shifts her focus to him.
Speaker 7: I need to help my father. He don't get up.
Speaker 10: My dad is handy capping. No, he can't get up.
Speaker 13: You don't get it.
Speaker 7: My dad can't get up and he's open. Sit there.
Speaker 7: He can't get up his handicap. Please do not do no,
Speaker 7: he can't. He has poor dad can do with this.
Speaker 7: Fuck all of you guys, seriously, fuck you guys. He
Speaker 7: is not even said in the morning, I agree, honey.
Speaker 1: You can hear or her mom jan comforting her, agreeing
Speaker 1: with her. Then Laura says this to the police.
Speaker 7: Do you guys see what you've done? Do you see
Speaker 7: what you've done. I mean it really that my family
Speaker 7: is dealing with sir.
Speaker 1: As her father walks in the room, Laura has a
Speaker 1: realization all of this is being recorded the people.
Speaker 19: You know what.
Speaker 7: Oh, I'm sure they already told me they had body camps.
Speaker 7: I'm sure they're gonna get thee becomes a public record with.
Speaker 19: My father all.
Speaker 1: In the middle of the chaos, there's an almost farcical moment.
Speaker 1: Instead of addressing the twelve tactical officers in their living room,
Speaker 1: Laura and jan start arguing with the police about which
Speaker 1: chair is best for Ron to sit in.
Speaker 7: He can't sit in that share rollers chair, the black chair,
Speaker 7: the black chair.
Speaker 10: You normally sit.
Speaker 7: He'll roll in that one.
Speaker 6: That's where he sits, so this one.
Speaker 1: Then Laura has another realization. The police have already confiscated
Speaker 1: her mom's phone.
Speaker 7: Whoa, whoa, whoa. It does not say you guys can
Speaker 7: take my mom's It doesn't.
Speaker 1: You can hear the panic rising in Laura's voice. She
Speaker 1: seems suddenly desperately concerned about what the officers might find
Speaker 1: on her mom's device. The police hand her a copy
Speaker 1: of the warrant, but she only glances at it.
Speaker 7: Yes, I just did. On the person Laura Michelle Owen.
Speaker 7: Where does it say you can take my mom's phone?
Speaker 1: Jake Freeman warrant and it said you you can take
Speaker 1: my mom's phone.
Speaker 7: Read it, don't just look through it.
Speaker 1: The officers aren't interested in the bickering. They're just trying
Speaker 1: to move forward and finish securing the property so they
Speaker 1: can turn it over to the investigators.
Speaker 12: So we're serving the search more on behalf of the
Speaker 12: Maricopa County Attorney's office.
Speaker 7: That's right, And I'm not saying where.
Speaker 12: It's six thirty in the morning, my god, sir, So
Speaker 12: for statute, we can serve a daytime search wark between
Speaker 12: the hours of six thirty in.
Speaker 10: The morning and ten at night.
Speaker 13: And this is important enough.
Speaker 10: So they are the investigators.
Speaker 12: Our role here was just securing the property. So the
Speaker 12: investigators have all the details that they drafted the search war. Okay,
Speaker 12: we have investigation.
Speaker 16: I have this. There's nothing that said you guys can
Speaker 16: search my mom's phone.
Speaker 7: I did read it. Don't don't you tell me I
Speaker 7: didn't read it.
Speaker 12: Mom, Laura, Like I said, we did not draft the
Speaker 12: search on.
Speaker 7: It doesn't say it start my mom's phone.
Speaker 12: I haven't one to your mom's phone, and Laura, just
Speaker 12: listen to me. Okay, just because we've set a phone aside,
Speaker 12: doesn't mean that we're searching it. Oh god, this is
Speaker 12: the most instant just because we've done that, just like
Speaker 12: because we've put you guys in here are.
Speaker 10: Looking for sir.
Speaker 13: I can't tell you guys this enough.
Speaker 12: We are not searching the property. Maricopa County Attorney's Office
Speaker 12: is the one responsible for drafting this warrant and searching
Speaker 12: for evidence for their case. We have merely secured the
Speaker 12: property on their behalf.
Speaker 1: This whole time. The investigators have been standing a few
Speaker 1: feet away, ready to get to work.
Speaker 10: These are the County Attorney Office etectives. They have the
Speaker 10: intelligence and the information on the case.
Speaker 12: Any questions that you have, they may or may not
Speaker 12: be at liberty to answer, based on the severity of
Speaker 12: the case or whatever they're investigating.
Speaker 8: But they are the.
Speaker 10: Ones that the information behind it.
Speaker 12: I do not have any information to provide you.
Speaker 1: Despite everything else that is happening, the Owens family is
Speaker 1: still fixed on one detail. They keep coming back to
Speaker 1: the timing, asking again, why the police came before seven
Speaker 1: in the morning, or we can serve a.
Speaker 12: Warrant between six thirty and but I mean, you've a
Speaker 12: little bit of disco.
Speaker 10: We're not talking about it.
Speaker 12: When would you rather reserve it at noon where all
Speaker 12: your neighbors see the police here?
Speaker 16: Oh?
Speaker 8: Yeah, you would rather that at six?
Speaker 12: Well, well, we're well within our within the law to
Speaker 12: do that, okay. So any questions that you have pertaining
Speaker 12: to the case, the County Attorney's Office detectives can answer those.
Speaker 1: The police turn the scene over to investigators who have
Speaker 1: the cumbersome task of searching the house for evidence.
Speaker 10: I don't think we have comms with you guys, as
Speaker 10: we need to just respond, you know, just yeah, no one,
Speaker 10: what happens?
Speaker 12: Thank you guys, thank you, thank you for all your hope.
Speaker 10: Combine.
Speaker 1: This is where the body cam footage ends. Apart from
Speaker 1: law enforcement and the Owens family, no one knew this
Speaker 1: raid happened, not Clayton, his lawyer, or any of the
Speaker 1: online detectives. Three months past, where on the outside it
Speaker 1: looked like not much was happening with the investigation into
Speaker 1: Laura Owens. That was until a press conference on April
Speaker 1: twenty third, twenty twenty five. A local reporter put the
Speaker 1: Maricopa County attorney on the spot and asked her about
Speaker 1: the status of the investigation. Rachel Mitchell's response.
Speaker 6: I mean we are still actively investigating that. What I
Speaker 6: will simply say is stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Two weeks after that press conference, everything changed for Laura Owens,
Speaker 1: and we begin tonight with new developments and the paternity
Speaker 1: case involving a former Bachelor contestant.
Speaker 9: Breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been
Speaker 9: indicted on fraud charges.
Speaker 20: Owens is accused of altering an ultrasound image, lying under oath,
Speaker 20: and fabricating a pregnancy video as part of her alleged scheme.
Speaker 21: As for Ecker, the battle he's been fighting for two
Speaker 21: years is now in the hands of prosecutors.
Speaker 1: On May sixth, twenty twenty five, the news broke that
Speaker 1: Laura Michelle Owens had been indicted on seven criminal charges.
Speaker 14: A scott Stie woman who previously accused a former Bachelor
Speaker 14: contestant of impregnating her, is now indicted on fraud charge.
Speaker 22: It's almost a year long investigation sparked by a Superior
Speaker 22: Court judge presiding over this paternity case involving the former
Speaker 22: Bachelor star and a woman named Laura Owens.
Speaker 14: Grandeury indicted her on several felon accounts, including fraud, forgery, perjury,
Speaker 14: and tampering with evidence.
Speaker 21: The County Attorney's office says Owens went to extreme lengths
Speaker 21: to manipulate Ekker.
Speaker 22: After to your legal battle, Eckert is ready for prosecutors
Speaker 22: to take over.
Speaker 21: Owens released a statement saying she is stunned by the
Speaker 21: charges and maintains that she was in fact pregnant but
Speaker 21: had a miscarriage. She believes she was only charged because
Speaker 21: of public pressure.
Speaker 22: Owens has her arrangment hearing set for May twenty ninth.
Speaker 1: The online community who'd been following this story from the
Speaker 1: beginning was freaking out. Dave Neil even went livel at
Speaker 1: a baseball game.
Speaker 9: Unbelievable, breaking news. We just found out Laura Owens charged
Speaker 9: with fraud, seven counts. Unbelievable stuff.
Speaker 17: Justice is served now for the first time. She's in trouble.
Speaker 17: She has seven felony counts against her.
Speaker 3: We have a seven count indictment, seven felonies for Laura Owens.
Speaker 13: If you didn't get the news, she's going down.
Speaker 1: For those who'd been personally affected by Laura Owens. The
Speaker 1: news brought an intense wave of emotion. Here's Mike Marriccini.
Speaker 8: I know exactly where I was. I was on vacation
Speaker 8: with my family. We were in a hotel room, so
Speaker 8: I remember the setting. I remember seeing my daughters both
Speaker 8: on the couch watching cart tunes, and I saw that
Speaker 8: she had been indicted. But I remember immediately texting both
Speaker 8: of the guys and giving my wife a big hug.
Speaker 4: Here's Mike's wife, Danielle.
Speaker 5: We were finally seen in our pain. Just the innate
Speaker 5: healing that comes from somebody telling you that they believe you,
Speaker 5: just that nothing else is powerful.
Speaker 8: It was surreal because I felt like justice was finally prevailing.
Speaker 1: Clayton's attorney, Greg Woodnick, also remembers the moment he heard
Speaker 1: the news.
Speaker 20: I was in my car on the way home from
Speaker 20: my office. I got a phone call telling me she'd
Speaker 20: been indicted. I was certainly not disappointed that she was indicted.
Speaker 20: I don't wish Laura a downfall. I don't even wish
Speaker 20: her a lengthy prison sens. I've always wanted her to
Speaker 20: get help and acknowledge what she did, but her being
Speaker 20: charged was a big deal.
Speaker 1: Clayton was walking home from the gym when he got
Speaker 1: a call from a reporter at a local news station.
Speaker 1: She's the one who told him Laura had been indicted
Speaker 1: on seven felony counts, all related to his case.
Speaker 2: I texted the guys and they're going ballistic, and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, I start getting more messages from other people,
Speaker 2: and then I went straight to Instagram.
Speaker 4: Here's what Clayton posted that day.
Speaker 8: Justice is finally served.
Speaker 11: I am absolutely amped to share this news with you
Speaker 11: all that today, as of like I think twenty minutes ago,
Speaker 11: Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has announced the indictment of
Speaker 11: Laura Michelle Owens on felony charges related to the paternity scheme.
Speaker 11: One count of fraudulent schemes a class two felony, one
Speaker 11: count of forgery a class four felony, four counts of
Speaker 11: perjury last four felony, and one kund of tampering with
Speaker 11: physical evidence a class six felony. This nightmare is over.
Speaker 11: I am so ready to not have to think about
Speaker 11: this anymore. I want to say thank you to Rachel
Speaker 11: Mitchell and the investigators for serving up justice. I want
Speaker 11: to thank my lawyers. Oh They've been incredible standing by
Speaker 11: my side.
Speaker 8: This wouldn't have gotten to this point if it wasn't.
Speaker 11: For Greg Woodnick and his entire incredible team. And this
Speaker 11: is just such a weight lifted off. I'm really looking
Speaker 11: at messages coming through right now from the other guys.
Speaker 11: We are so so thankful and thank you all for
Speaker 11: your support. I have not been this happy. This is
Speaker 11: a weight of two years lifted off my shoulders. Of
Speaker 11: these guys before me years lifted off their shoulders.
Speaker 8: It feels good.
Speaker 1: I asked Woodnick to explain the felony charges against Laura
Speaker 1: in Arizona.
Speaker 20: We've got six levels of felony, with the Class one
Speaker 20: and being the highest level of felony and Class six.
Speaker 1: Being the post one against Laura is a Class two
Speaker 1: felony charging her for fraudulent schemes and artifices.
Speaker 20: The class two felony is a very serious felony charge.
Speaker 1: Then there were six more felony counts for forgery, perjury,
Speaker 1: and tampering with physical evidence. Charges like felony perjury are
Speaker 1: very rare.
Speaker 20: I've dealt with some challenging issues and people that have
Speaker 20: struggles telling the truth in a courtroom, but I've never
Speaker 20: seen someone go the distance that Laura did, and I
Speaker 20: certainly have never seen a case result in this sort
Speaker 20: of felony prosecution. The reason why I believe it was
Speaker 20: prosecuted is because the behavior was so egregious. I have
Speaker 20: never seen such egregious behavior.
Speaker 1: Laura, however, didn't see her actions as egregious, quite the opposite.
Speaker 1: The day after the indictments were handed down, she fired
Speaker 1: back with an official press release. Here is a portion
Speaker 1: of that statement, read by a voice actor.
Speaker 16: As someone who has never been charged with a crime
Speaker 16: in my life, I am stunned by the seven felony
Speaker 16: charges announced against me by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
Speaker 16: These allegations appear to be the result of coordinate harassment, misinformation,
Speaker 16: and public pressure in the aftermath of the paternity case
Speaker 16: I filed against former Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd. These charges
Speaker 16: appeared to be the product of intense public pressure, not
Speaker 16: impartial judgment. They reflect a system that responded to online outrage,
Speaker 16: ignored procedural protections, and moved forward based on narrative rather
Speaker 16: than fact. It is difficult not to see them as
Speaker 16: part of a broader effort to discredit me, discourage me
Speaker 16: and make an example out of me. I intend to
Speaker 16: meet these accusations head on, and I will defend myself
Speaker 16: fully and relentlessly through every step of this process.
Speaker 1: The indictments against Laura are considered nonviolent, so she wasn't arrested. Instead,
Speaker 1: she was served as summons to appear in court for
Speaker 1: her arraignment on May twenty ninth, but she chose to
Speaker 1: self surrender two days early. This was likely a strategic
Speaker 1: move to demonstrate her cooperation to the judge and secure
Speaker 1: a release without bail until her trial. Laura was officially
Speaker 1: processed on May twenty seventh, and once her mugshot went public,
Speaker 1: the online reddit community had plenty to say about it.
Speaker 13: You know, she spent hours on her mugshot.
Speaker 11: Look feels like she's trying to pull off a sad face,
Speaker 11: but still comes across looking smug.
Speaker 1: Who plumps and glosses lips for a mugshot. Wts wow,
Speaker 1: seeing this is a real sign just as and accountability
Speaker 1: will hopefully be coming. Two days later, Laura had her
Speaker 1: arraignment her usual She appeared virtually.
Speaker 19: This is an over one on the court's calendar. State
Speaker 19: of Arizona versus Owens Serra twenty twenty five zero zero
Speaker 19: six eight three one zero zero one the z Owens,
Speaker 19: would you please state your full name and date of birth,
Speaker 19: Laura Michelle Owens.
Speaker 1: The judge had already received Laura's plea this morning.
Speaker 19: Court will enter please if not guilty on behalf of
Speaker 19: the defendantists to all counts one through seven, noting that
Speaker 19: this is the initial appearance on each of those counts.
Speaker 4: Then the judge set Laura's release conditions.
Speaker 19: The defendant will be released on her own recognizance. Ma'am,
Speaker 19: what that is is your promise to attend all future
Speaker 19: court hearings. You don't need to post a bond at
Speaker 19: this time. However, if you fail to appear for any
Speaker 19: of your future court hearings absent good cause, court could
Speaker 19: issue a bench warrant for your arrest and require that
Speaker 19: you post a bond. If you are taken into custody
Speaker 19: before you can be released, court will also order that
Speaker 19: you not initiate any contact with any alleged complainant or witness.
Speaker 19: You're not to leave the state, at least not without permission.
Speaker 19: Looks like you've already taken care of your fingerprints, all right,
Speaker 19: Thank you, Maszillanes, You're free to disconnect.
Speaker 1: After Laura disconnected a clock started ticking. Just because she
Speaker 1: was indicted does not mean she was convicted. That's an
Speaker 1: important distinction. And as we just heard, Laura pled not guilty.
Speaker 1: So going forward, she has a few options. Either go
Speaker 1: to trial to try to prove her innocence, or change
Speaker 1: her plea to guilty and admit to the crimes the
Speaker 1: state charged her with. Here's Clayton's attorney, Greg Woodnick.
Speaker 20: If she chooses to go to trial, I hope Laura
Speaker 20: gets the fairest criminal trial she can get.
Speaker 8: I hope she gets a wonderful jury of neutral.
Speaker 20: People who want to be open minded about the evidence
Speaker 20: and apply the law appropriately. Everyone deserves a fair jury trial,
Speaker 20: and she's entitled to that in her criminal case.
Speaker 10: Should she choose to pursue that.
Speaker 1: Going to trial would mean dragging everything to light. The
Speaker 1: indictments only gave a few small details about each charge,
Speaker 1: like quote claiming that sonogram image was hers during sworn deposition.
Speaker 1: Which sonogram in particular, or the evidence the state had
Speaker 1: that it wasn't Laura's. No one knew, but some of
Speaker 1: the content creators, like reality Steve had guesses.
Speaker 17: The sonogram that we know is fake, but no one's
Speaker 17: had to ask her. Laura's never done an interview with
Speaker 17: me or Dave or anybody. Laura, we found the sonogram.
Speaker 17: You stole it from YouTube, even though when you emailed
Speaker 17: it to me you said, Steve, this is my proof
Speaker 17: that I'm pregnant.
Speaker 1: About a month later, the state released its witness list,
Speaker 1: which was sixty four names deep. If Laura goes to trial,
Speaker 1: these are the people who would be called to testify.
Speaker 1: As expected, the list features Clayton eckerd, Michael Marriccini, and
Speaker 1: Greg Gillespie. It also includes some familiar names like Laura's
Speaker 1: parents Jan Black and Ron Owens, Laura's sister Sarah, attorneys
Speaker 1: Greg Woodnick and Deandra Arena, and even content creator Dave Neil.
Speaker 1: But there were some names on there that didn't make
Speaker 1: sense at the time. That was until six months later,
Speaker 1: when the state surprised everyone by releasing a public investigation report,
Speaker 1: a one hundred and eighteen page document detailing their investigation,
Speaker 1: explaining the evidence they'd found to support every felony count.
Speaker 1: The content creators were especially excited.
Speaker 17: This is ah wow, way weirder than I thought it
Speaker 17: was gonna be okay.
Speaker 23: They were able to go into Laura's iCloud and find stuff.
Speaker 17: A lot of them are interviews that they have done
Speaker 17: during their investigation, a couple of them with Clayton, one
Speaker 17: with her mother.
Speaker 6: Jan the mother of Laura Owens, trying to have a
Speaker 6: secret meeting with investigators.
Speaker 13: Let's get into it, shall we this one?
Speaker 3: Oh boy, get your tea, at your tea.
Speaker 1: The investigation report is like the state showing their hand.
Speaker 1: It's all the information that would be in their case
Speaker 1: at trial. It's redacted in some places, but we learned
Speaker 1: a lot. It addresses almost everything, including some mysteries I
Speaker 1: honestly never thought i'd see an answer to. Here's journalist
Speaker 1: Megan Fox.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, there's so much. There are nuggets in
Speaker 3: here that are brand new that you really you need
Speaker 3: to hear.
Speaker 1: We're going to go through this investigation report from the
Speaker 1: Maricopa County Attorney's Office. We've had a voice actor read
Speaker 1: from the report, and just for the record, it's not
Speaker 1: an AI voice. It's actually my husband, who happens to
Speaker 1: sound very official. We've also pulled in real clips of
Speaker 1: Laura herself from various court hearings. Let's start with the
Speaker 1: small revelation that you probably already saw coming. Remember that
Speaker 1: video Laura sent to Reality Stephen Clayton that shows her
Speaker 1: father Ron, in a hospital bed rubbing a woman's pregnant belly.
Speaker 1: Laura claimed it was her in the video, but according
Speaker 1: to the investigation.
Speaker 23: Report, during a sworn deposition at the office of Greg
Speaker 23: Woodnick Clayton, Eckert's attorney, Laura Owens testified to a video
Speaker 23: clip of her father, Ron Owens in a hospital bed
Speaker 23: rubbing her pregnant belly. Owens maintained that this was her
Speaker 23: and her father by stating.
Speaker 5: My dad's in the hospital and he touched my stomach.
Speaker 23: However, Owen's face was not visible. The original video was
Speaker 23: located during this investigation, and it can be seen that
Speaker 23: Owen's sister, Sarah Owens Navarro, is the subject with the pregnancy.
Speaker 1: We also learned from the same investigation report that the video,
Speaker 1: which had no sound, actually has an audio track in it.
Speaker 1: Investigators specified that Laura and her mother, jan Black can
Speaker 1: be heard talking in the background. At the June tenth trial,
Speaker 1: you'll remember that Laura Owens said she only had one
Speaker 1: ultrasound during her alleged pregnancy, which was done in California
Speaker 1: in July twenty twenty three. She admitted to altering the location, date,
Speaker 1: and name on that sonogram using Adobe Acrobat. The whole time,
Speaker 1: she remained adamant that the sonogram itself was hers.
Speaker 4: But according to the investigation.
Speaker 23: Report, Laura Owens committed perjury while testifying in Maricopa County
Speaker 23: Superior Court in front of Judge Julie Matta when she
Speaker 23: testified to a sonogram image. Owen's attorney asked, did.
Speaker 8: You have a sonogram done in California.
Speaker 23: Owens responded by stating, yes, I did. Owens admitted to
Speaker 23: changing the location, the date, and placing her name on
Speaker 23: the top banner. This sonogram was altered and was initially
Speaker 23: that of her sister, Sarah Owens Navarro.
Speaker 1: Then there's the altered ultrasnd from the Halloween meme, the
Speaker 1: one she'd us to successfully secure an order of protection
Speaker 1: against Clayton.
Speaker 23: On the twenty fifth day of October twenty twenty three,
Speaker 23: Laura Owens committed perjury while testifying in Americopa County Superior
Speaker 23: Court when she testified regarding a sonogram that was attached
Speaker 23: to an image of herself in a spoof Halloween costume
Speaker 23: package from Reddit. Owens testified that the sonogram image she
Speaker 23: has seen holding in the overall image is.
Speaker 1: A sonogram of our son that only he had possession of.
Speaker 23: Owen's attorney asked if this was a sonogram that she
Speaker 23: sent Eckert or if anyone else received it. Owen stated
Speaker 23: that the ultrasound was not sent to anyone else. This
Speaker 23: sonogram image was found to have been from Owen's sister,
Speaker 23: Sarah Owens Navarro's pregnancy.
Speaker 1: As part of the investigation, Laura's mom, Jan Black, was interviewed.
Speaker 1: She asked to meet with the investigators without Laura's knowledge.
Speaker 1: Mostly Jan stands by Laura's story, but there are a
Speaker 1: few lines that raise an eyebrow.
Speaker 23: Miss Black Owens spoke of death threats that she had
Speaker 23: received and some additional theories connecting this to the Gilgo
Speaker 23: Beach murders in New York or the Sewan Didnycombe sex
Speaker 23: trafficking case. Miss Black Owens feels this may be part
Speaker 23: of a bigger picture and agreed that the FBI may
Speaker 23: be looking into it.
Speaker 1: Yes, you heard that correctly. Her mother believed that the
Speaker 1: criminal investigation into Laura was connected to the Gilgo Beach
Speaker 1: murders or the Shawn Comb's sex trafficking case.
Speaker 23: Miss Black Owens asked how long this investigation would take.
Speaker 23: I said that I hoped that it wouldn't take too
Speaker 23: much longer.
Speaker 1: These next two revelations are jaw dropping. First, remember, at
Speaker 1: the beginning of this story, Laura told Clayton she was
Speaker 1: certain he was the father because she hadn't had sex
Speaker 1: with anyone else for over a year. According to the state,
Speaker 1: that appears to have been a lie.
Speaker 23: Laura Owens committed perjury while testifying in Maricopa County Superior
Speaker 23: Court when she testified that there was no possibility that
Speaker 23: she could be pregnant by anyone other than Clayton Eckert
Speaker 23: by stating.
Speaker 13: There's no chance for anybody else's.
Speaker 6: And no, I hadn't been intimate with anyone else since
Speaker 6: March of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 23: It was determined that Owens had sexual intercourse with Honor
Speaker 23: about the fifth day of May twenty twenty three and
Speaker 23: Honor about the twenty seventh day of May twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Just a reminder, the night Laura went to Clayton's apartment
Speaker 1: was May twentieth, twenty twenty three, meaning Laura had slept
Speaker 1: with another man two weeks earlier and one week later.
Speaker 1: We're not using his name for his privacy, but it
Speaker 1: seems he cooperated with investigators. Then there's the question of
Speaker 1: how Laura could have produced a positive pregnancy test. As
Speaker 1: we've said, early detection pregnancy tests measure for a hormone
Speaker 1: called hCG. It turns out hCG is something Laura bought.
Speaker 23: During a search of Owen's eyecloud, a series of messages
Speaker 23: were noted that indicated that Owens had gone to Medspa
Speaker 23: and purchased hCG, and that she had the injections delivered
Speaker 23: to her home. These text exchanges also indicate that Owens
Speaker 23: did not want her family to know she was injecting hCG.
Speaker 1: If Laura was injecting herself with hCG, like the state alleges,
Speaker 1: that could explain how she produced a positive pregnancy test,
Speaker 1: even if she wasn't actually pregnant. The state leaned on
Speaker 1: the mountain of evidence they collected to push through a
Speaker 1: seven count indictment against Laura Owens, and by the end
Speaker 1: of the report, there's no mistaking and their conclusion.
Speaker 23: Laura Owens, an adult female podcast host, created a scheme
Speaker 23: to elevate her notoriety and increase her commercial value by
Speaker 23: attempting to blackmail Clayton Eckert, a television celebrity, into a
Speaker 23: romantic relationship, by fraud, trickery, and deception. To this end,
Speaker 23: Laura Owens perjured herself in court hearings and a deposition,
Speaker 23: as well as tampering with evidence, forging documents, and material misrepresentation,
Speaker 23: deceiving the courts and the victim, Clayton eckered.
Speaker 1: You might think the criminal indictments were Laura's main focus
Speaker 1: during the summer of twenty twenty five, but she was
Speaker 1: gearing up to enter another legal battle once she seemed
Speaker 1: particularly interested in. It involved her ex boyfriend from nearly
Speaker 1: ten years prior, a man who didn't live in the
Speaker 1: same state. Her five year domestic violence restraining order against
Speaker 1: Mike Marraccini was set to expire on July tenth, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. This left everyone wondering would she renew it.
Speaker 1: Here's Mike's wife, Danielle.
Speaker 5: We were expecting it. We kept talking, preparing ourselves for
Speaker 5: the inevitable She's gonna renew but I do deeply think
Speaker 5: that we also were like, no way, does she have
Speaker 5: the balls to do it. So while we were saying
Speaker 5: one thing, I think subconsciously we felt like there's no chance.
Speaker 5: And ultimately when we got to the day of and
Speaker 5: nothing had hit the docket, we were like, we're free,
Speaker 5: Like we're done. She's learned her lesson. And to get
Speaker 5: the notification that afternoon that she had fun filed at
Speaker 5: like end of day I think it was like four
Speaker 5: thirty five, was devastating.
Speaker 1: At the last minute, Laura Owens filed once again to
Speaker 1: renew her domestic violence restraining order against Mike Marriccini. This
Speaker 1: massive one hundred and one page filing centers primarily on
Speaker 1: her June twenty twenty four trial involving Clayton Eckered, specifically
Speaker 1: citing Mike's presence in the courtroom as a point of contention.
Speaker 1: She alleged that Mike being in the court for Clayton's trial,
Speaker 1: which again he'd been subpoenaed for, had violated her DVRO.
Speaker 1: She also alleged that Mike had been harassing her using
Speaker 1: the online pseudonym Honk my Meat. Mike denies any connection
Speaker 1: to this account. He says he was busy parenting his
Speaker 1: two daughters, but Laura believed the Honk my Meat account
Speaker 1: was Mike anonymously harassing her. Laura argued that the extension
Speaker 1: of the restraining order was a necessary measure to ensure
Speaker 1: her ongoing safety and privacy. My first phone call with
Speaker 1: Mike was scheduled for the following day. During our call,
Speaker 1: he wanted to talk about Laura's decision to renew Can
Speaker 1: you give us your raw reaction to Laura Owens renewing
Speaker 1: the domestic violence restraining order against you on July tenth.
Speaker 18: I'm incredibly frustrated. I'm angry at not just Laura for
Speaker 18: keeping this going for more than a decade, but really
Speaker 18: upset with our legal system.
Speaker 4: What are next steps for you?
Speaker 18: I have to go to a trial to hopefully fight this,
Speaker 18: and right now it's either going to be another five
Speaker 18: year domestic violence for training order, it's going to be
Speaker 18: a permanent domestic violence for training order. So I'm trying
Speaker 18: to limit the damage and hopefully get it overturned, but
Speaker 18: most likely it will either become one of those two items.
Speaker 1: Is there anything else you want to share about this,
Speaker 1: maybe how it's affecting your family or you.
Speaker 18: It's definitely affected my family. I mean the amount of time, energy,
Speaker 18: financial aspect has been wasted over the last decade fighting
Speaker 18: this person has been terrible. And I don't wish this
Speaker 18: upon anybody, and I just want to thank everybody for
Speaker 18: their support, especially over the last few years.
Speaker 8: With this going public.
Speaker 1: When Mike got the news about the renewal, you can
Speaker 1: hear in his voice how defeated he was. Fighting this
Speaker 1: again could cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 8: I had been talking to certain attorneys beforehand and they
Speaker 8: were kind of rattling off pricing to me, and they're like, well,
Speaker 8: it could be anywhere from twenty five to fifty and then
Speaker 8: if you go to trial, it's another fifty to seventy five.
Speaker 8: And so I just sat and thought to myself, like,
Speaker 8: do I want to do this again?
Speaker 1: For Mike, that would mean dipping into his life savings,
Speaker 1: money that could be used for his daughter's futures. Mike's
Speaker 1: wife Didaniel Sai that at first he didn't want to
Speaker 1: fight this again.
Speaker 5: When he got off the phone about fighting it and
Speaker 5: the legal fees that we would incur, and he goes,
Speaker 5: I can't do this, Danielle. I can't take another financial
Speaker 5: hit like this, particularly because he is our sole provider
Speaker 5: at this point. We aren't just spending money like it
Speaker 5: doesn't matter. And he's like, I can't do it, and
Speaker 5: I said, you have to do it. We have to
Speaker 5: this time, and he was like, you're right, laying down
Speaker 5: has done nothing. I cannot go through this again, like
Speaker 5: I can't put my family through this again.
Speaker 1: And then Mike got a phone call from Omar Serrato.
Speaker 1: He's a family law attorney in California and a contact
Speaker 1: creator known as the Tilted Lawyer on YouTube. For the
Speaker 1: past couple of years, Omar has been doing legal comment
Speaker 1: and terry on Laura Owens's case.
Speaker 8: I remember I got a phone call from Omar, and
Speaker 8: I had asked him a couple of times, like would
Speaker 8: you represent me. I'm going to spend forty thousand dollars
Speaker 8: just trying to catch somebody up on this case, like
Speaker 8: it would be really beneficial if I was able to
Speaker 8: just use you. I'm pessimistic already. I'm assuming I'm going
Speaker 8: to lose, but I don't want to spend all of
Speaker 8: the money up front to lose. I'd rather have somebody
Speaker 8: that's in my corner that has like an idea of
Speaker 8: Laura in what she's tried to pull.
Speaker 1: At first, Omar said he appreciated Mike's honesty, but that
Speaker 1: he just wasn't going to be able to do it.
Speaker 1: But a few days later, Omar changed his mind.
Speaker 8: He's like, listen, I'll do it. Just raise a gofund me.
Speaker 8: Whatever is raised from the GoFundMe will help out dramatically,
Speaker 8: and I will do this. And on top of that,
Speaker 8: I'll add Rachel Warrez. I think she wants to be
Speaker 8: in on this as well.
Speaker 1: Rachel Warrez is an attorney in California. She's also one
Speaker 1: of the judges on the hit TV court program Hot Bench.
Speaker 1: Like Omar, Rachel had followed the Laura Owen's case closely.
Speaker 8: I was so happy because both of these people were informed,
Speaker 8: educated and were true family law attorneys with tons of
Speaker 8: experience in this matter. So I just felt like the
Speaker 8: cards were with me this time.
Speaker 1: Mike finally had the legal support he needed to give
Speaker 1: him a real fighting chance.
Speaker 4: Here's Rachel Warrez with.
Speaker 24: Mike in particular. I really felt like he had been victimized,
Speaker 24: and I had read a lot of the text messages
Speaker 24: that came out in the Clayton case, and I really
Speaker 24: felt as though he had been a victim of abuse,
Speaker 24: that those text messages were very emotionally abusive, and this
Speaker 24: was a victim that not only hadn't received help, but
Speaker 24: had been flipped into the perpetrator somehow.
Speaker 1: The legal was the first step for Mike to fight
Speaker 1: the DVRO, but it wasn't going to be easy.
Speaker 24: The standard for domestic violence in California has been broadened
Speaker 24: to include things like disturbing the peace in terms of
Speaker 24: a renewal. In particular, if you have a restraining order
Speaker 24: against somebody and they've been violating it, that's grounds for
Speaker 24: a renewal, and clearly that means you still need protection.
Speaker 24: But the law in California has developed to say that
Speaker 24: if someone is not violating the restraining order, that that
Speaker 24: proves that it's working, and therefore that's another good reason
Speaker 24: to renew it. So not only do you not need
Speaker 24: evidence of a single violation, but actually the judge can
Speaker 24: consider the lack of violations evidence that a restraining order
Speaker 24: has been successful and should continue.
Speaker 1: The trial for the DVRO renewal would be held in
Speaker 1: San Francisco. Ahead of their hearing, Laura had some requests
Speaker 1: for the court.
Speaker 4: First, she filed a.
Speaker 1: Motion to wave life testimony in favor of a written statement,
Speaker 1: citing the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Speaker 4: If this was.
Speaker 1: Granted, she would avoid a cross examination at the trial. Then,
Speaker 1: citing confidential medical data and threats from the Justice for
Speaker 1: Clayton Group, she also requested the motion be sealed. The
Speaker 1: filing disclosed several diagnoses, including autism spectrum disorder, epilepsy PTSD,
Speaker 1: traumatic brain injury, panic and generalized anxiety disorders, and anorexia nervosa.
Speaker 1: She also asked for a continuance on the hearing, meaning
Speaker 1: she wanted more time due to her medical condition and
Speaker 1: her father's recent hospitalization. The court ultimately denied all these motions.
Speaker 1: Because she's the one who initiated the renewal, they wanted
Speaker 1: her in person for the hearing, no exceptions. A two
Speaker 1: day evidence hearing was set for October twenty first and
Speaker 1: October twenty second in San Francisco. I got my plane
Speaker 1: ticket and was ready to go cover the trial live.
Speaker 1: But the weekend before I was supposed to leave, I
Speaker 1: got some news. It's Saturday, October eighteenth, and I got
Speaker 1: some interesting news last night. Something came across the docket.
Speaker 1: It is a declaration of Laura Owens in support of
Speaker 1: expedited request for reconsideration of motion to continue based on
Speaker 1: urgent health concerns and request for ruling on the papers.
Speaker 1: Now you might be thinking, what the heck does that mean. Well,
Speaker 1: earlier Laura tried to get a continuance on this case
Speaker 1: due to health concerns, and the judge denied that continuance request.
Speaker 1: So that is why I booked my travel to San Francisco,
Speaker 1: because I thought that this trial.
Speaker 4: Would be happening.
Speaker 1: Now this is an urgent health matter, which is kind
Speaker 1: of what she said earlier. However, this just got filed yesterday.
Speaker 1: The trial is supposed to happen on Tuesday, so we
Speaker 1: won't know a ruling on this until at least Monday,
Speaker 1: if the judge even looks at it.
Speaker 14: Now.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the documents yet, so I don't know
Speaker 1: what's in them, but I think this is going to
Speaker 1: go one of two ways.
Speaker 4: Laura's not showing up.
Speaker 1: She also didn't request travel from the state of Arizona,
Speaker 1: and we know that she has a criminal proceeding there,
Speaker 1: and anytime she leaves the state, she has to have
Speaker 1: permission from the state to do so. She never filed
Speaker 1: this travel request, so in my mind, that's saying that
Speaker 1: she never had any intention of going to this in
Speaker 1: the first place. Now, again, one of two things could
Speaker 1: happen here. The first one is that she's just considered
Speaker 1: a no show and the DVRO renewal request gets dropped
Speaker 1: right then and there, and that's it now. The other
Speaker 1: one is that the judge could look over these papers
Speaker 1: and grant the continuance, which means the trial will be
Speaker 1: another time. Despite not knowing what would happen, I boarded
Speaker 1: the plane to San Francisco. My flight landed the night
Speaker 1: before the trial was set to begin. I got into
Speaker 1: San Francisco at around six o'clock tonight and was trying
Speaker 1: to see if anyone could mean up. But I took
Speaker 1: myself to dinner. I came to Original Joe's because it
Speaker 1: looked like, as San francis, good thing to do. Before
Speaker 1: I arrived, Laura appeared to have been communicating with Mike's
Speaker 1: attorney Omar. Those communications included a proposed stipulation from Laura
Speaker 1: that's basically a list of demands. Here's what she'd asked for,
Speaker 1: an extension of the DVRO for one year. Mike would
Speaker 1: need to withdraw the filings he submitted in the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five DVRO, and that the twenty eighteen and twenty
Speaker 1: twenty restraining orders would remain valid and on the record.
Speaker 1: If Mike complied with these demands, among others, Laura would
Speaker 1: agree to drop the DVRO after that additional year. Mike
Speaker 1: was not willing to agree to that, but the night
Speaker 1: before the hearing, Omar sent another email with the counter proposal.
Speaker 1: He wrote, Let's keep this simple. We will agree to
Speaker 1: mutually dismiss with prejudice, having both parties pay their own
Speaker 1: fees and abide by all applicable laws. And while I
Speaker 1: was sitting there at dinner, I got a text with
Speaker 1: an update. So I'm heading over to talk to Mike
Speaker 1: and Omar right now. But this, this is huge. I'd
Speaker 1: never met Mike Marricini in person, but he and his
Speaker 1: lawyer Omar invited me to the hotel room where they'd
Speaker 1: been preparing for trial. They just heard the news that
Speaker 1: Laura might be dropping the restraining order. Content creator Megan
Speaker 1: Fox had been in the room with them recording when
Speaker 1: they found out it came in an email from someone
Speaker 1: in Laura's camp. Here's Mike and his lawyer Omar. The
Speaker 1: moment they got the email, he responded to you, how.
Speaker 18: We did and we'll fear my zone.
Speaker 8: Owe off.
Speaker 7: It's over.
Speaker 10: Oh, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 7: That's so fantastic that it's over.
Speaker 1: The judge in San Francisco told Laura she had to
Speaker 1: appear in person, but because of her felony indictments, she
Speaker 1: couldn't leave the state of Arizona without permission, and she
Speaker 1: hadn't filed that request yet. Everyone on Mike's team had
Speaker 1: been waiting, holding their breath to see if Laura would
Speaker 1: be showing up. Then this email came in saying she
Speaker 1: accepted their terms and would be appearing virtually. It meant
Speaker 1: that DVRO would finally be over. When I knocked on
Speaker 1: the hotel room door, Mike greeted me with a hug.
Speaker 1: He looked like he'd been crying. I got my phone
Speaker 1: out to record and asked them to explain the email
Speaker 1: they'd just received. Mike's lawyer, Omar jumped in, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm recording, so tell me what just happened.
Speaker 25: The case is over.
Speaker 26: Unofficially, we are going to show up in court tomorrow morning,
Speaker 26: nine am, and we're going to tell the JUCH that
Speaker 26: the parties have reached a global resolution or owns is
Speaker 26: going to miss her renewal motion with prejudice. Both parts,
Speaker 26: paid her own costs, attorney fees, obey all federal and
Speaker 26: statele hause, and go about their merry way.
Speaker 10: That's all we're going to do.
Speaker 1: Mike left a few minutes later to get some rest.
Speaker 1: He still had to show up to court the next day.
Speaker 1: After he left, I asked Omar the obvious question, do
Speaker 1: you think that this is going to stick at nine
Speaker 1: am tomorrow? Meaning is it really over? I've been following
Speaker 1: this case long enough to know that Laura has a
Speaker 1: habit of saying one thing and doing another. And these
Speaker 1: emails seemed kind of suspicious. They weren't from her lawyer.
Speaker 1: She didn't actually have a lawyer in this matter. She
Speaker 1: was representing herself. These emails came from someone named Matthew
Speaker 1: who was using a Gmail account. Now he is a
Speaker 1: lawyer and Omar spoke with him on the phone, but
Speaker 1: in this matter, he called himself a friend of the
Speaker 1: Owens family and was communicating with Omar on Laura Owens's
Speaker 1: behalf as a quote friend of the court. About twelve
Speaker 1: minutes later, Omar got an email directly from Laura Owens.
Speaker 1: Luckily I was still recording.
Speaker 25: Hey, so I just got this email from Laura email
Speaker 25: the department saying, Hi, I am looping in doctor Green
Speaker 25: and David Jingers, who like me, will be appearing via
Speaker 25: Zoom tomorrow and also need a link.
Speaker 8: Thank you Warmer's regards.
Speaker 25: That's the email.
Speaker 1: They knew Laura had plans to appear by Zoom the
Speaker 1: following morning, but they were under the impression that it
Speaker 1: was just to accept the terms and drop the domestic
Speaker 1: violence restraining order against Mike.
Speaker 4: The email was cryptic. Why did she want.
Speaker 1: Her doctor and her former attorney on the call if
Speaker 1: she was just going to drop the restraining order. It
Speaker 1: turns out the fight wasn't ending because Laura wasn't done
Speaker 1: with Mike Marriccini. For Mike, it felt like a power play.
Speaker 8: This is what she gets off on, is having power,
Speaker 8: manipulating people, manipulating the situation, utilizing the justice system. This
Speaker 8: is her foreplay.
Speaker 1: Trat, Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure
Speaker 1: to follow Love Trapped on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts, and please leave us
Speaker 1: a review. A five star rating helps others find this show.
Speaker 1: We're grateful for your support. If you would like to
Speaker 1: reach out to the Love Trapped team or have a
Speaker 1: similar story to share, email us at Love Trapped Pod
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. That's Love Trapped Pod at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com.
Speaker 4: Love Trapped is.
Speaker 1: A production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group,
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. This show was executive produced
Speaker 1: by Nancy Glass, Andrea Gunning and Ben Fetterman, written, produced
Speaker 1: and hosted by me Stephanie Young. Our story editor is
Speaker 1: Monique La Boord. Producer on this episode is Sidney Gladoo.
Speaker 1: Additional production support from Todd Gans. Our production manager is
Speaker 1: Kristen Melchiri. For iHeart Podcasts, Ali Perry was our executive producer.
Speaker 1: Audio editing and mastering by Anna McClain. Additional editing support
Speaker 1: by Tanner Robbins and Matt delvecchio. Thank you to our
Speaker 1: voice actors Leslie Tolley, Todd Gans, Olivia Hewitt, Cooper Mall
Speaker 1: Matt Delvecchio and Sidney Gladoo. This podcast was developed in
Speaker 1: collaboration with Danny Passman and Leb Abramoff at Crybaby Media.
Speaker 1: The Love Trapped theme is composed by Oliver Bains Music
Speaker 1: library provided by Mybe Music. A special thanks to Carrie Lieberman,
Speaker 1: Will Pearson, Jessica Crincheck, Ali Canter, and the entire iHeart
Speaker 1: podcast team. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts