A woman pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court in Arizona Friday after claiming false pregnancies against two men, including one who appeared on “The Bachelor.”
Laura Owens, 36, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices and one count each of perjury and taking another person’s identity, according to court records.
As part of the plea deal, Owens will be on probation for three of the counts, though she could face prison time on the remaining count of fraudulent schemes. Owens is also forbidden from contact with her victims and will have to pay restitution. Another 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 on the 18th season of “The Bachelorette” and starred on the 26th season of “The Bachelor.”
Owens ended up dropping a suit against Mr. Echard, claiming a miscarriage, but the investigation continued. Prosecutors indicted Owens 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’s Page Six.
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 Arizona man, identified as Gregory Gillespie according to the Arizona 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 it was hers, according to the Mercury News.
