A woman pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court in Arizona after claiming false pregnancies against two men, including one who appeared on “The Bachelor.”
Laura Owens’ pleas were for two counts of fraudulent schemes and tricks and one count each of perjury and taking another person’s identity, according to court records.
As part of the plea deal, Owens, 36, will be on probation for three of the counts, though she could face prison time on the remaining count of fraudulent schemes.
She is also forbidden from contact with her victims and will have to pay restitution. An additional 10 counts against her were dismissed, according to the Arizona Republic.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office started investigating Owens in July 2024 at the request of a judge who was presiding over a paternity hearing between her and Clayton Echard, who appeared in the 18th season of “The Bachelorette” and starred in the 26th season of “The Bachelor.”
Owens ended up dropping her suit against Mr. Echard, claiming a miscarriage, but the investigation continued. Prosecutors indicted her in May 2025 and found that between May 2023 and June 2024 she created a fake pregnancy video, edited an image of an ultrasound and lied under oath, the attorney’s office said at the time.
Mr. Echard maintained from the start of the paternity suit against him that he and Owens never had sex, according to the New York Post.
Additional charges were filed against Owens in November 2025 after the attorney’s office found she falsified documents in a 2021 paternity case against another Arizonan, identified as Gregory Gillespie, according to the Republic.
The charge of taking the identity of another stems from the paternity claims against Mr. Gillespie. Owens used an ultrasound photo of twins, uploaded online originally by a woman blogging about her grief from losing one of the twins while pregnant, and claimed to Mr. Gillespie that the baby was hers, according to The Mercury News, which covered the story since she has San Francisco Bay Area ties.
