Laura Owens, the 36-year-old daughter of San Francisco radio icon Ronn Owens, has pleaded guilty in a case tied to her claims that she became pregnant after a brief romantic encounter with former The Bachelor star Clayton Echard.
Owens entered the guilty plea Friday to multiple fraud-related counts involving Echard, 33, as well as separate charges connected to her former boyfriend, Gregory Gillespie.
Under the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped 10 of the 14 felony counts she had faced. In return, Owens admitted to two counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, one count of perjury, and one count of taking the identity of another person.
Most of the counts carry the possibility of probation, but the first fraudulent schemes charge could result in either probation or a prison term of up to 12 and a half years when she is sentenced on October 23.
Owens was indicted in May 2025 on felony fraud, forgery and perjury charges after prosecutors accused her of fabricating a pregnancy involving Echard.
The case began in August 2023, when Owens filed a paternity petition in Phoenix, Arizona, alleging that Echard had fathered twins during what she described as a one-night stand.
Echard denied being the father and maintained that he and Owens did not have intercourse, though he acknowledged they had romantic contact, Our News Outlet previously reported.
By November, Owens testified in court that she was 24 weeks pregnant with twins. Prosecutors later alleged she supported the claim with a doctored sonogram and a fake pregnancy video.
Laura Owens, 35, entered a guilty plea on Friday as part of a settlement after she faked pregnancies with two men, including The Bachelor star Clayton Echard
Clayton Echard appeared on The Bachelor Season 26 and denied ever having intercourse with Owens
After facing fourteen felonies, Owens pleaded guilty to four counts – two counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, one count of perjury and one count of taking the identity of another – with the other ten dismissed. She is pictured at Maricopa County Superior Court on Friday
But shortly after the court appearance, she dropped her lawsuit and claimed to have miscarried.
Her first two fraud convictions relate to the fraud against Echard, which took place between May 2023 and June 2024.
The remaining charges concern her ex-boyfriend Gillespie, who she dated briefly in 2021.
His connection to the case was sparked by their realizing they shared the same family law attorney, KTAR News reported.
‘Ms Owen’s admission of guilt today is a step in the right direction towards acknowledging the significant harm that her crimes caused her victims and the community,’ Gregg Woodnick, Echard and Gillespie’s attorney, told Our News Outlet in a statement.
‘We are tremendously appreciative of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and their investigators who have worked tirelessly to pursue justice.’
Echard previously told Our News Outlet that Owens’s pregnancy claims turned his life upside down.
He claimed that she immediately became ‘obsessed’ with him after he dumped her and then falsified the pregnancy.
Laura Owens submitted a picture she said was her baby bump to the court during a paternity petition in which she claimed Echard was the father
Echard, who was ‘The Bachelor’ on Season 26 of the hit ABC dating show and who now works as a realtor in Scottsdale, said he felt ‘vindicated’ when prosecutors charged her last May.
He told Our News Outlet in October that he believed Owens’s mother, former radio reporter Jan Black, was the driving force behind her daughter’s legal problems. However, she denied that accusation.
‘I don’t even really blame Laura,’ he said. ‘I think her mom has enabled and encouraged her daughter and Laura doesn’t even realize it.’
Black, however, insisted that her daughter’s pregnancy was real and said Laura has been ‘tormented’ online, hounded by ‘men’s rights podcasters’ and prosecuted selectively by the state of Arizona.
Laura, however, sounded cheerful when Our News Outlet reached her by phone in Arizona at the time.
‘I can’t tell you how much I wish I could make a statement to you,’ she said. ‘And I would be happy to once the criminal side of things is over.
‘I have lots to say, but I would get in trouble. I can say I am innocent but nothing more for now. It’s best if you go through my mother.’
Echard’s version of his relationship with Owens began casually, with no warning signs. He said Owens first reached out to him on LinkedIn in May 2023, asking to contact a brokerage he was part of.
Owens was indicted last May on felony charges of fraud, forgery and perjury after allegedly falsifying a pregnancy with Echard
Documents and photos between Gillespie and Laura allege a disturbing pattern – including a text thread where she allegedly sent him ultrasounds claiming to be pregnant with twins
Echard claimed that when he didn’t want to pursue a relationship with Laura, a ‘switch flipped’ and she began sending him positive pregnancy tests
‘I basically said sure and we exchanged cell phone numbers,’ Echard said. ‘She started to text me saying she wanted to see homes, then she started to be flirtatious. She sent me a provocative photo and the mood shifted. I said you should come over.
‘She was completely normal, which is sad, because she could have had a totally normal life.
The trouble began, he said, when he told her he wasn’t interested in pursuing a relationship after their night together.
‘I was under the influence of marijuana that night,’ he said.
‘If I’d been sober, I wouldn’t have asked her to come over. When I woke up the next day, I felt it was a mistake. She started talking as if we were going down a serious path. I just wanted to be blunt and not lead her on.’
What happened next, Echard says, ‘was very eerie.’
When he gently told Owens he didn’t want to date her, he said ‘a switch flipped. It wasn’t her there anymore.’
Echard said she began sending him five or six angry emails per day, sent process servers to his workplace and filed to have his Arizona Department of Real Estate license pulled.
At one point he asked her to come to his apartment to take a pregnancy test that turned out to be positive and ‘rattled’ him, he said, until he decided she was taking HCG, a pregnancy hormone sometimes used in equine care, to fake test results.
Echard claimed Owens began sending him five or six angry emails per day including this one that shows the pregnancy announcement photo that she planned to post if he didn’t unblock her
Echard’s lawyer hailed the conviction as the Bachelor star said he is moving on with his life and focusing on his real estate career
Owens was additionally accused of faking a twin pregnancy and another singular pregnancy after her relationship with Michael Marraccini, pictured, fell apart in 2016
Echard said that initially, before he knew if Owens was truly pregnant: ‘I thought she had trapped me.’
Echard added that he was moving on with his life and focusing on his real estate career and new hobby, dancing, which he showcases on his Instagram account.
‘I totally compartmentalize that experience,’ he says. ‘I feel I happened to stumble across one of the most crazy individuals I’ve ever met.
‘The chances of me stumbling across another one? I’m not going to carry baggage from something previous.’
Our News Outlet reached out to Owens and her lawyers for comment.
