Highlights
- Laura Owens, a Scottsdale woman, faces 14 felony charges in Maricopa County Superior Court tied to alleged false pregnancy claims against two men.
- A grand jury first indicted Owens in May 2025 on charges related to Clayton Echard; a second indictment six months later covered a 2021 incident involving another Arizona man.
- Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has offered Owens a plea deal; Owens has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
- The 'Love Trapped' podcast documenting the case reached No. 1 on the Apple podcast series chart after host Stephani Young spent a year reporting it.
Scottsdale resident Laura Owens faces 14 felony charges in Maricopa County Superior Court, the product of two separate grand jury indictments stemming from alleged false pregnancy claims against two different men, one of them a nationally known reality television figure.
The case began when Owens accused Clayton Echard, who starred in Season 26 of "The Bachelor" and was working as a real estate agent in Scottsdale when he met Owens in 2023, of fathering her child. Family court ruled in June 2024 that Echard did not get Owens pregnant. Following that ruling, the judge asked the Maricopa County Attorney's Office to investigate whether Owens had lied under oath.
In May 2025, a grand jury indicted Owens on charges of perjury, fraud, forgery and tampering with physical evidence in the Echard case. Six months later, a second grand jury indicted her on charges of perjury, fraud, identity theft, forgery and extortion, this time tied to a 2021 incident involving another Arizona man. Investigators found evidence of the earlier alleged scheme while looking into the Echard accusations, according to KTAR News.
The 2021 case has a notable overlap with the Echard matter: Scottsdale family law attorney Gregg Woodnick represented the man targeted in 2021 and later represented Echard in the family court proceeding. That shared counsel gave investigators an early window into the alleged pattern.
Why is Laura Owens facing criminal charges?
After family court ruled in June 2024 that Echard did not father Owens' child, the presiding judge referred the matter to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office to investigate potential perjury. Investigators then uncovered what they allege were similar false claims Owens made against a different Arizona man in 2021, leading to the second indictment.
Owens has pleaded not guilty in both cases. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell confirmed last week that Owens has been offered a plea deal; if no agreement is reached, the case will go to trial, Mitchell said.
The legal proceedings have drawn national attention through "Love Trapped," a true crime podcast produced by Stephani Young that reached No. 1 on the Apple podcast series chart. Young told KTAR News she spent a year reporting the story. "The story is the twists and turns, the amount of things that she used to try to prove to him that she was pregnant. The list is long," Young said. Young also noted that a California man may be connected to a related matter involving Owens.
As Fox 10 Phoenix and 12News have both reported, plea negotiations are ongoing; if talks collapse, trial is the next step.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- ktar.com retrieved 11/05/2026 20:36
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 11/05/2026 20:36. Every claim traces to a source.
