Laura Michelle Owens - Court Case History
All editors are welcome to contribute any relevant information to Laura Owens' legal cases against Clayton Echard, Dave Neal, or others. Anyone is free to sign up and start editing, but all users must abide by the Wiki Code of Conduct. Please make sure to read the linked code of conduct before editing.
Laura Owens is a podcast host in Arizona. She is is at the center of the Clayton Echard paternity scandal and all of the related cases. Owens has falsified pregnancies and alleged abortion coercion and domestic violence in court against at least three different men. Each of these falsified pregnancies were alleged after the three men had tried to either end a relationship with Owens or communicated that they did not want to pursue anything romantic with her.
Quick Facts
- Owens has restraining orders, also referred to as an Order of Protection (OOP) against Michael Marraccini, Greg Gillespie, and Clayton Echard.
- Owens unsuccessfully attempted to obtain an OOP against YouTube personality, Dave Neal.
- Gillespie and Echard each have been granted OOPs against Owens.
- Owens sued Gillespie for abortion coercion and emotional distress (award sought was $40,000). These lawsuits were dismissed by a judge.
- Owens has threatened defamation lawsuits against Dave Neal, Reality Steve, Law Talk with Mike, among many other podcasters who have covered or are considering covering the story, without allowing her a platform.
- Owens filed a lawsuit against Dave Neal for harassment due to his public coverage of these court cases on his YouTube Channel, however she dismissed the suit the day before the court hearing.
- Owens has an active Family Court case suit against Echard. The case was moved to the inactive calendar after multiple DNA tests failed to prove paternity or pregnancy. However, Echard has filed to extend the court case in order to prove a finding of non-paternity. Case is now scheduled for a status conference on 2/21/2024 and a Trial/Evidentiary Hearing on 2/27/2024.
- Owens attempted to quash the motion to be deposed in the family court case against Echard, but the judge dismissed this motion on 2/16/2024.
Victim #1
Victim #1 wishes to remain anonymous, but journalists have been in touch and corroborated their story.
Michael Marraccini: April 2016 - 2018: San Francisco, California
April 2016
Laura Owens begins relationship with Michael Marraccini.
According to Michael via court records, he tried to end the relationship prior to their upcoming Iceland trip, but was coerced by Owens’ parents because she was threatening them with suicide. Ronn Owens, Laura's father, begged Michael to stay in contact with her because her life was at risk and that he would help him get out of this relationship afterwards once she was safe. (Source below)
December 2016
On December 30, Laura Owens and Michael Marraccini travel to Iceland together - a trip that Owens later describes in her TedX Talk. In her TedX Talk, Owens claims that Marraccini subjected her to verbal and physical abuse throughout the duration of the trip. Source
A woman, by the name of Karen, later submitted a statement in support of Owens, claiming she witnessed Marraccini verbally abusing Owens on the flight to Iceland. Source
March 2017
Marraccini ends relationship with Owens. She claims he impregnated her, but later in court documents it was revealed she admitted she lied about that, apologized about the suicide threats, and there was never any evidence of a physical issue between them. Once Marraccini ended their relationship, Owens began stalking him, which led him to contact the police. That is when she accused him of physically assaulting and raping her, and it is presumed that those are the reasons she has an order of protection against him. She claims to have aborted the alleged pregnancy. (See link to court docs at end of this page.)
January 2018
On January 9, Owens files a domestic violence suit against Michael Marraccini in San Francisco County, CA. Source
Court records are linked at the bottom of this page.
Victim #3
Victim #3 wishes to remain anonymous, but journalists have been in touch and corroborated their story.
Greg Gillespie: June 2021 - October 2023: Scottsdale, Arizona
2021
June/July: Owens and Greg Gillespie go on three dates, after which he tells her he doesn’t want to continue dating.
After one of the aforementioned dates, Owens and Gillespie engage in sexual intercourse. Eleven days after their sexual encounter, Owens tells Gillespie that she is pregnant. Around this time, she also told Gillespie that she would let him have control of the outcome of the pregnancy if he committed to being in a relationship with her. Gillespie alleges that Owens stalked, threatened and harassed him during this time, including emailing his HR department. Source: OOP excerpt included below.
August 8: Owens sends photo of an ultrasound to Gillespie depicting her alleged pregnancy with his twins. Gillespie runs the ultrasound through a reverse image search and finds the photo posted to a years old blog.
August 11: Owens files a lawsuit against Gillespie for abortion coercion. According to court documents, Owens sent him a sonogram she purported to be hers, which Gillespie found online in someone else’s blog using reverse Google image search. It is his belief that she was never pregnant.
During this time, Owens also filed a bar complaint against her attorney after her attorney withdrew from the case.
August 12: Greg Gillespie files for Order of Protection (OOP) against Owens. He alleges that Owens attempted to get him fired from his job in retaliation for breaking up with her.
2022
January 6: TedX releases Laura Owens' talk on domestic violence and her relationship with Marraccini. The Lifesaving Power of Kindness to Strangers | Laura Owens | TEDxMercerIslandHSWomen — YouTube
March 4: Owens alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted. (See exhibit 4 below)
August 1: Owens emails the judge accusing Greg Gillespie and his attorney of being involved in the March 4th assault. Owens alleges that the FBI was investigating the incident, but it is unable to independently verified, nor whether the alleged investigation resulted in anything. It is unknown if this alleged incident was reported to the police.
A hearing on Gillespie's Motion to Dismiss “CV 2021–052893 Owens v Gillespie” (the abortion coercion case in Maricopa County) is held on August 17.
The case was later dismissed by the judge on October 12.
Court records are linked at the bottom of this page.
Clayton Echard - May 2023 - Present: Scottsdale, Arizona
April 3: Clayton Echard announces on Instagram that he has become a real estate agent, serving the Phoenix and Scottsdale areas. Source
May 9: Laura Owens creates an LLC for the purpose of Real Estate and Rental and Leasing. Source
May ?: Owens reaches out to Clayton Echard on LinkedIn for real estate assistance.
May 20: The two meet in person for the first time. The two have an “intimate encounter,” which Echard describes as “only oral sex.” The following day, Echard tells Owens that the hook up was a "mistake." Source
May 25: Echard asks Owens to leave him alone, informing her that he is considering contacting the police.
June 1: 11 days after their “intimate encounter,” Owens alleges she had her first positive pregnancy test. Source Around this same time, Owens tells Echard that she would let him have control of the outcome of the pregnancy if he committed to being in a relationship and loving and caring for her. Source
June 17: Owens claims that Echard “purchased a pregnancy test and asked her to urinate in front of him to confirm the pregnancy.” Source
June 27: Owens' "Iceland story" is published in Chicken Soup for the Soul. Source
July 2: Owens emails Echard’s parents inviting them to her ultrasound. Source
August 1: Owens files in family court against Echard.
August 3: Owens emails Arizona Suicide Prevention Hope Conference to get Echard removed as a guest speaker.
September 15: Arizona Real Estate Department sends Echard a notice that he violated realtor conduct. This was after Owens filed a complaint against him. (Source: Superior Court of Arizona — Maricopa County proceedings of CV2023–053952)
September 18: Owens goes to the Sun and Medium with an anonymous article.
September 22: Owens posts “proof” on Reddit, including links to her public Dropbox with photos of her pregnant belly and texts/emails from Echard.
September 27: Echard takes his side of paternity test. Owens is photographed competing in an Equestrian jumping competition — allegedly 20 weeks pregnant with twins. No baby bump seen. Source
Credit to mccoolphotos.com
October 6: DNA test results come back. Echard announces “little to no fetal DNA” on his Instagram story. Source Owens claims the results were “ongoing” and recorded a call with the lab to support that. Source
It is important to note that all of Owens’ DNA tests returned the same result of “little to no fetal DNA.”
According to Echard, Owens then sends him an ultrasound that he believes was doctored. He also claims she later refused to call the OBGYN’s office to verify the ultrasound’s authenticity during their early resolution conference. Source
Owens files OOP against Echard.
October 13: Neal breaks story that on October 11th, Owens had circulated her alleged sonogram video to the media, which was later proved to be an edited 6 year old sonogram from an unrelated Youtuber. Owens later claims Greg Gillespie hacked into her account and released the fake sonogram. Source
October 19: Owens sends Neal a cease and desist letter for his coverage. Source
October 26: Owens files for a temporary restraining order against Neal. The judge denies the request on first amendment concerns. Source
November 2: Echard wins his injunction against harassment hearing. Owens is seen drinking an energy drink during the hearing. Echard claims that Owens got him fired from speaking gigs and reported him to the Real Estate commission. Judge sides with Echard due to the 500+ messages he received from her after he asked her to stop contacting him and blocked her. Source
November 3: Neal is served lawsuit from Owens alleging harassment and revenge porn. The photo she cites as revenge porn, was shared by Owens in her public Dropbox “evidence” folder, which she sent to various media outlets, as well as in Bachelor related subreddits. Source
November 6: Video surfaces of Owens’ alleged baby belly moving wildly during court hearing against Echard, 27 days after she was photographed without a bump at horse jumping competition. Source
November 9: Judge throws out Owens’ suit for emotional damage against Greg Gillespie. Source News leaks that Laura Owens is trying to change her name to Emily Wilson.
November 10: Owens filed a police report on Gillespie for violating his OOP by allegedly posting her private information to Reddit under various alt accounts. Detectives found no evidence of her claims and closed the police investigation. (#23–20074) Source
November 14: Owens sends mass email to podcasters threatening to sue them for defamation if they cover the case without platforming her. Source
November 15: Reality Steve offers Owens a platform to share her story. She does not accept offer. Instead threatens to sue him.
November 18: Owens pulls out of The Las Vegas National (horse jumping competition) after it leaks on Reddit that she was signed up to compete while allegedly six months pregnant with twins. Source
It has been rumored that she then attempted to compete under an alias — but that rumor has not been corroborated.
December 4: Owens and Echard’s paternity case gets moved to the inactive calendar because of a lack of movement in the case. Source
December 5: Law Talk with Mike covers the case and offers Owens a platform to prove her pregnancy. She does not accept, instead threatens to sue him. Source
December 6: Neal breaks the news that a third DNA test came back with the same result of “little to no fetal DNA.” Source Around this time, Owens submits criminal complaint against Neal with Los Angeles District Attorney. Source
December 7: Owens publishes blog post to Medium titled "Unveiling the Unbearable: My Battle Against Cyberbullying and Online Harassment | by Laura Owens" Source
December 12: Echard files a motion in family court to extend the dismissal date, to definitively, on record, settle if he is or is not the father of Laura Owens' alleged twins.
December 20: Owens posts a public video on her Facebook page which opens with "My name is Laura Owens..." and proceeds to speak for over 6 minutes about being "cyberbullied". The video is shot from her neck up. The sounds she makes are of a crying nature, but no tears are actually seen for the entirety of the video. She specifically calls out Neal, Reality Steve, and "Reddit sleuths" for alleged cyberbullying. Owens also shared Patreon paid subscriber private stream footage of Neal saying things about her over the past few months without any context. Once again, let it be known that Neal has never once said her name (he refers to her as Jane Doe) or shown any photos of her. After about a half-hour, the video disappears from her public Facebook page and she claims that it was only intended for her close friends and family (her beginning the video with "My name is Laura Owens..." seems to dispute this claim).
December 21: The Medium article by Regina Phalange was taken down by Medium. The archive lives on here. Interesting that Medium continues to leave up her defamatory post about Echard and Dave, then takes down Regina's cogent rebuttal of Owens' post.
December 23: Chase J. Jones (widely believed to Owens - see below for details) submits to have his Google and Patreon subpoenas quashed, claiming that he has nothing to do with the case. Dave's lawyer has reached out to "Chase J. Jones" several times, asking for a quick FaceTime to verify he is real and put this matter to bed, but has been met with silence on the other end.
December 25: Laura Owens sends a cease and desist letter to TikTok/YouTube personality, Liz Neptune, regarding the use of a video Owens had posted to Facebook that had been used in a TikTok video by a different creator (not Liz Neptune). That creator is not affiliated with Liz in any way, yet Owens claims that she has proof that they are, but has not provided that proof. Owens and Neptune engage in a brief email correspondence, ending with Neptune telling Owens to never contact her again. Owens reported the correspondence as harassment to Liz's local Sherriff's department.
December 28: Owens retains a new attorney in the family court case against Echard, files to dismiss petition to establish paternity. Owens claims that she's "not now pregnant" and wants the case dropped. She is also saying in her motion that because a portion of Echard's legal fees were crowdsourced that he isn't entitled to any awarding of legal fees. Source
2024
January 2: A new article about the case is published in The Sun. Owens responds to the article, stating: "that she 'firmly stands by everything' she had previously claimed and that she had a positive pregnancy test at one point, which was also documented in court docs, that 'confirmed' her pregnancy and 'was corroborated by a test at a medical facility.'"
Owens files to quash her deposition from Echard and his attorneys. Owens' new attorney, Lexi Lindvall, withdraws as counsel just one week after she takes on the case. Shortly thereafter, Cory Keith becomes Laura's new attorney.
January 17: Laura fails to show up for her deposition.
February 2: Clayton shows up for his deposition. Laura attends it as well.
February 16: Judge denied Laura's motion to quash her deposition.
February 21: Status conference scheduled.
Evidentiary Hearing is set for February 27th.
Dave Neal
On November 1st, 2021, Laura Owens files for a temporary restraining order against Dave Neal. Dave is a podcaster and journalist that has been covering Clayton Echard's story. Laura and Dave have never met in person. Her TRO request was denied. Source
After that was denied, Laura sued Dave for civil harassment. She and Dave both retained counsel.
On 2/07/2024, Laura dismissed her harassment suit against Dave Neal.
Court records are linked at the bottom of this page.
Additional Sources and Coverage
All public coverage from Dave Neal’s Youtube can be found here: Playlist
Hearings uploaded to Youtube here: SchnitzelNinja — YouTube
Clayton spoke about his case on The Viall Files podcast on Jan 11, 2024.
Clayton also spoke about his case on The Unplanned Podcast on Feb 7, 2024.
Unsubstantiated Allegations, Claims, and Theories
There is a belief that Laura Owens impersonated a Howard University journalism student, by the name of Chase Jay Jones, in an attempt to get Echard canceled for having participated in a TikTok dance challenge featuring a song with the "n-word" in it. After this theory began to circulate, Jones' identity was scrubbed from the internet. The IP address that Chase Jay Jones used was traced back to the region Owens lives in. Source: All Ears Podcast episode with Dave Neal
In a later update on Jones, Dave Neal states, "Chase Jay Jones 100% joined my Patreon October 19th. I have this proof that they were lurking in there for several weeks. We tried to get their billing info from Patreon, who proved to be UTTERLY USELESS. Even with a court ordered subpoena, they weren’t able to find CJJ in their database. This person has vanished from the world. They either had their data scrubbed, or they’re hiding under a different username. All efforts are being taken to find their identity. More on that later."
Greg Gillespie
Greg Gillespie believes that Laura Owens was not actually pregnant with his twins, nor was she ever, despite her claims.
Laura Owens alleges that Gillespie hacked into her iMessage in 2021, sending himself the original faked sonogram. In 2023, Laura Owens alleges that Gillespie hacked her email account - she further alleges that Gillespie had hacked into her email account and distributed the fake sonogram video depicting her alleged twins with Clayton Echard to the press.
Clayton Echard
Clayton Echard, like Greg Gillespie, believes that Laura Owens was never pregnant with his twins, despite her claims.
Echard is still paying for legal representation; he is actively several thousand dollars in debt over this. If you’d like to donate, you can do so here.
Disclaimers
This timeline is now being hosted here on JusticeForClayton.com after the original timeline, posted to Reddit, was taken down along with the subsequent repost of the content on Medium. This page cites public court records and, except for the clearly delimited speculation at the bottom, only includes verifiable facts. We will happily update this page to include any substantive evidence proving a pregnancy and Clayton Echard's paternity, but a screenshot of a doctor's appointment doesn't meet any reasonable standard. The operator of this site claims no authorship over the content below and is simply rehosting it for public accountability.
As of 12/20/2023, the domain registrar has already received one cease and desist for this site. The content below is a collected summary of cited links to independently verifiable sources and we will revise its content in response to credible evidence as more is made available. The intent is not to harass or defame anyone, but rather to preserve important public information that has been repeatedly removed from other sites under abusive takedown notices.
Court Documents