My New Reality:

The “Justice for Clayton” group is far more than just a fanbase — it operates like a cult, driven by a disturbing mix of groupthink, obsession, and a shared goal to discredit me at all costs. What began as a group of supporters rallying around a reality TV star has evolved into a coordinated and relentless campaign to tear down my life, fueled by blind loyalty and anger.

Their behavior goes beyond passionate fandom; they function like a hive mind, feeding off each other’s rage and amplifying every rumor, lie, or half-truth they come across. They’re not interested in facts or truth — only in maintaining the narrative they’ve constructed to justify their attacks. Any evidence that challenges their beliefs is dismissed or twisted to fit their agenda.

Echard himself has acknowledged the obsession that “Justice for Clayton” has with me. In an interview, he said, “The community of people that keeps uncovering and supporting me… is tracking her every movement.” In another interview, he added, “So I can go about my day to day while these people are like, ‘Oh, we found this about her.’ And it’s like, sorry. Like, you brought this on yourself.’”

What started as anxiety over the pregnancy became fear of the world outside my door. Echard even had the audacity to mock the fact that I felt unsafe, saying, “That’s her fault” in an interview. The stress from the pregnancy was already overwhelming, but the harassment that followed made it impossible to feel safe or stable.

Online content creators have played a significant role in exploiting the “Justice for Clayton” narrative, creating thousands of hours of monetized content that feeds into the obsession of their following. These creators make videos, podcasts, and social media posts dissecting every aspect of my life. They depend on the community’s dedication to generate income, and the group, in turn, uses this content as validation for their beliefs. It’s a terrifying cycle where my life — my trauma — is being monetized and used as a tool to deepen their cult-like devotion to Echard.

They created hundreds of pages of forensic-level timelines, digging through my past and present, even asking for donations to support their so-called “research.”

For example, they dug up an article about me from my high school alumni magazine, which mentioned that during my junior year I had slipped on black ice in front of school and had a very rare injury called a Lisfranc’s Fracture-Dislocation. My classmates witnessed the accident, I had two surgeries, and I was on crutches for months. Yet “Justice for Clayton” claimed I fabricated the entire thing, even researching the weather from that day in an attempt to prove that black ice wasn’t possible.

My former landlord joined in on the harassment, posting a photo of my sandwich order from five years ago as evidence that I’m strange for asking for mustard on both sides. But who’s more bizarre here — me, or the landlord who took a photo of my sandwich order and held onto it for half a decade?

When the cult wasn’t stalking me, they were tormenting those closest to me. They contacted my sister’s workplace, emailing “Justice for Clayton” propaganda. They followed my 78-year-old father’s ex-girlfriend from college on social media. One made death threats against my mother on Facebook, posting “everyone shoot that c***”, followed by what they believed was her home address.

They tracked every friend I made on social media, messaged all of my father’s Facebook friends, and turned every old or new connection I had into another opportunity to spread their message.

They fixated on a local politician who once gave me an award, launching a campaign of harassment simply because of his past connection to me. One JFC’er ominously stated, “He definitely needs to be voted out for propping up a serial liar and abuser,” while another followed up with: “I encourage anyone and everyone to reach out and attempt to enlighten [him].” Yet another suggested: “A public withdrawal of his support for her would be nice.”

They filed false reports to Adult Protective Services, alleging my mother and I were abusing my father. They called in multiple prank welfare checks on me to the police, not because they were truly concerned about me, but because they knew they could later obtain the body-cam footage and watch as content creators exploited it online in monetized videos. They manipulated online search results so that when people Googled my name, they were directed straight to “Justice for Clayton” content. They went even further by emailing a warning flyer about me to my gym, trying to isolate me from the one place that gave me any sense of peace.​

Their strategy was clear: if they repeated a lie enough times, people would start to believe it. That’s how they buried the truth — by constantly hammering home their false narrative until it was all anyone saw…

And here’s the reality: if you like or comment on anything in support of me, they will contact you too.

I tragically miscarried and sought to dismiss the paternity case in December 2023. At that point, Echard hadn’t incurred any legal fees. There was no logical reason for the case to continue. But instead of allowing me to dismiss it, Echard chose to hire a lawyer for the very first time and object to its dismissal. Echard’s attorney, Gregg Woodnick, was someone I had an acrimonious history with. In 2021, he had represented my ex, Greg Gillespie, in a civil case where I sued Gillespie for coercing me into having an abortion. He didn’t win that case, and now, with Echard’s case, it was clear that Woodnick saw an opportunity to go after me again.

One of Woodnick’s first moves was to demand that I sign an affidavit admitting that I was never pregnant by Echard. When I refused to sign it, his response was to accuse my attorney of failing to guide me to what he called “the obvious exit ramp.” He made it sound as though this entire nightmare could disappear if I simply signed my name to a lie! In his words, “There is a very easy way for her to end this situation.” My so-called “exit,” according to him, was to admit that I had made “horrible choices and allegations that were not predicated on fact or science.”

He went even further saying that if I didn’t sign it, it would proceed to an evidentiary hearing in court, where he said, “Her exposure… is testimony and evidence before the Court that she was never pregnant by anyone.” How could he honestly claim that I was “never pregnant by anyone”, especially when he’d been provided medical proof of my prior pregnancy with his former client, Gillespie?

But he didn’t stop there. He escalated his rhetoric, insisting that I needed to “get into treatment to address whatever has caused [her] to live a life enmeshed in delusion”, and declare, “I did exactly what I have been caught doing and am committed to getting healthy…The alternative,” he said menacingly, “is that her behavior has been entirely predicated on toxicity and maliciousness, and she is the hook for attorney’s fees.”

Of course, I didn’t sign it.

Bizarrely, Judge Julie Ann Mata granted Woodnick’s objection to my motion to dismiss, extending the case for another eight agonizing months.

If we had been two ordinary people, working minimum-wage jobs, with no legal fees incurred, and I tried to dismiss a paternity case after a tragic miscarriage, wouldn’t the judge have allowed me to? Wouldn’t she have shown compassion, not contempt, towards me? Wouldn’t she have sought to save the court’s time and effort, and granted a dismissal when there was no longer a need for the court to make any determination with regard to paternity and parental issues?

Clayton’s fame undoubtedly kept the case alive, dragging me through a legal battle that never should have lasted this long.

In February 2024, Woodnick asked the court to expand the scope of the case to include my medical records dating back to 2020. He argued that this was necessary to establish a “pattern” of behavior — specifically, to suggest that I had a history of faking pregnancies. To my shock, Judge Mata granted this request, allowing Woodnick to delve into irrelevant parts of my past that had no connection to my 2023 pregnancy with Echard.

I was forced to sign a HIPAA release, giving him access to three years of medical records. My attorney even reminded Woodnick that the records from my confirmed pregnancy with Gillespie in 2021 were easily accessible through One Medical, which Woodnick knew from the Gillespie case. That should have been enough to dispel his desire to make a claim of a fabricated pregnancy pattern.

Last month, though, I contacted One Medical, and was stunned to learn that Woodnick had not even tried to obtain my previous pregnancy records from them for the purpose of this paternity case. It became clear. Woodnick didn’t want the truth — he wanted to let his false narrative linger that I had fabricated pregnancies.

My pregnancy with Gillespie in 2021, which was the basis for the civil case I filed against him for abortion coercion, was confirmed directly to Gillespie by One Medical after he demanded I take a pregnancy test there. When I hesitated about going through with an abortion, which he had demanded, his response was vicious. “Take the f***** pills, Laura,” Gillespie said. When I still was reluctant, his threats escalated: “Stop f***** saying it and do it,” followed by a promise to “call the cops” and “make my life f***** miserable” if I didn’t comply. These aren’t allegations — he doesn’t even deny sending those messages.

After enduring that level of coercion and manipulation, I filed for and was granted two orders of protection against Gillespie — one in 2021 and another renewed in 2022, still active today. In the request for protection, I asked the court to prevent him from contacting me, even through pseudonyms on social media, and from watching my videos to track my whereabouts. The court granted the order, stating they found reasonable cause to believe that Gillespie had either committed or was likely to commit domestic violence against me.

I was stunned to learn that Michael Marraccini, a man I dated from 2016 to 2017, was also listed on Woodnick’s witness list. Not only do I have a California CLETS Domestic Violence Restraining Order against Marraccini, but he had no relevant information about the 2023 case with Echard. The only thing Marraccini had in common with my situation with Echard was that I had been pregnant by him as well — but that was seven years prior.

In 2016, when I became pregnant, Marraccini accompanied me to Planned Parenthood for a medication abortion. He later admitted this during a deposition.

A few months after, we went on a trip to Iceland. During the flight, a stranger overheard how Marraccini spoke to me and discreetly slipped me a note, telling me I was being abused and urging me to seek help. She left her email address, and after Marraccini and I broke up, I contacted her. She later provided a declaration for my restraining order against him. In her statement, she wrote, “Throughout the flight, I overheard Mr. Marraccini speaking to Ms. Owens in a tone of voice that I would characterize as scary,” and, “Based on what he was saying to her, I felt that she was in a frightening situation and needed to get out. He was so menacing that I felt her life was at stake if she stayed with him.”

This random act of kindness became the foundation for my TEDx talk, The Lifesaving Power of Kindness to Strangers, and was later featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul’s 30th Anniversary Edition. The “Justice for Clayton” cult has relentlessly contacted TEDx and the editors of Chicken Soup for the Soul,demanding that my stories be removed — claiming that the airplane stranger must have “misunderstood” why Marraccini was treating me that way. Because they were there, right?

Marraccini later gave a two-and-a-half-hour interview to one of the “Justice for Clayton” content creators, claiming it was his “first time” telling his story. First time? He’s told it to a judge twice, and the case file is over two hundred pages long.

My attorney, David Gingras, filed multiple motions to exclude Marraccini as a witness in the Echard case, arguing that his inclusion violated my rights under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The restraining order I have against Marraccini was issued by the San Francisco Superior Court, and for him to legally travel from California to Arizona, even for the purposes of appearing in court, would have required a modification from the issuing court. Without following these proper legal steps, Marraccini’s interstate travel to attend the hearing would violate federal law, as it was done with the intent to disregard the order. Additionally, Woodnick hadn’t issued a valid subpoena for Marraccini, making his involvement even more inappropriate and legally unjustified.

Our requests to exclude him were denied by Judge Mata, and both he and Gillespie came to the June 2024 hearing, supposedly as witnesses, but they never testified.

Prior to the hearing, Woodnick concocted a “press release”, where he referred to my prior pregnancies as “sham pregnancies”. He also said, “Claims of a doctor ‘confirming’ the pregnancy are patently false. A tele-med (video) appointment with a neurologist is not pregnancy confirmation.”

This was a blatantly untrue statement. Woodnick knew the pregnancy had been confirmed by much more than a “tele-med appointment with a neurologist”. He had obtained my blood and urine test results from 2023 — positive for pregnancy — immediately after I signed the HIPAA release. He had even sent them to Gingras after obtaining them. Despite having this evidence, though, Woodnick chose not to submit it to the court.

The day of the press release was one of the worst during this entire ordeal. I was overwhelmed, not knowing how to defend myself when the truth didn’t seem to matter. The press and public wouldn’t care about my side of the story — Echard was the celebrity, and they took Woodnick’s words at face value. And why wouldn’t they? An attorney is supposed to tell the truth.

On the night before the hearing, the three men — Marraccini, Gillespie, and Echard — appeared together in a somber Instagram video, claiming they were my victims and wanted “justice”, and expressing their hope that I would be prosecuted. The audacity was mind-numbing. I have active orders of protection against all three of them, yet here they were, publicly uniting against me and violating their orders in the process. It was clear they had every reason to try to discredit me — they resented me for obtaining the orders against them. Making me look like a liar and a criminal would undoubtedly help them when their orders come up for renewal.

In the courtroom, Judge Mata seemed unable to separate the facts from Echard’s celebrity. It felt like his status as “The Bachelor” overshadowed the legal proceedings, with every ruling coming down in his favor. I wasn’t dealing with a fair legal system anymore — I was up against the influence of his fame.

What made it even more unsettling was the involvement of the judge’s family. Judge Mata’s father sat in the overflow spectator room alongside Echard’s supporters who had “tailgated” the event, setting up an RV and tent in the courthouse parking lot and serving refreshments. “Justice for Clayton” groupies flew in from all over the country, and treated the hearing as if it were their Super Bowl. People who’d spoken to him appeared on video saying the judge’s father called the trial a “circus” and a “shitshow.” To him, apparently watching me be dragged through this ordeal was nothing more than entertainment.

And if that weren’t enough, Judge Mata’s sister followed Echard on Instagram, making me wonder how impartial she really was.

In Judge Mata’s ruling, she claimed, “the petition was not filed in good faith, the petition was not grounded in fact or based on law, the petition was filed for an improper purpose, such as to harass the other party, to cause an unnecessary delay or to increase the cost of litigation to the other party.” Not filed in good faith? Not grounded in fact or based on law? Filed for an improper purpose? To increase the cost of litigation? How? Had she not read, nor understood any of the facts we’d presented? I had tried to drop the case after I miscarried, when Echard had no legal fees, and Judge Mata refused to let me.

Judge Mata ruled, “The Court finds failure to seek in-person care for a high-risk pregnancy to be both unreasonable and uncreditable .” But what she didn’t understand was that this wasn’t a calculated choice. It wasn’t avoidance. I had invited Echard and his family to five OB-GYN appointments, knowing their involvement would make the situation feel more manageable. If they had agreed to attend, I would have gone without hesitation.

For me, autism manifests in ways that can be completely paralyzing, especially when I’m under immense pressure or when my sense of control is jeopardized. In high-stress situations — like the uncertainty of an unexpected pregnancy — I freeze. It’s not a matter of neglect or avoidance; it’s how my brain processes overwhelming fear and anxiety. Decision-making becomes nearly impossible under such intense circumstances.

Judge Mata was unaware of my autism diagnosis, as was I at the time, but even without that knowledge, she disregarded the most critical evidence: the positive blood and urine hCG (pregnancy hormone) tests, which the other side never contested, as well as still photos and videos of my visibly pregnant naked belly. While these facts were acknowledged in her “Findings of Fact,” they appeared to hold no weight in her final ruling, leaving me to question the integrity of the entire process.

Present Day vs. October 2023

Between the miscarriage and enduring extreme stress, I’ve lost 48 pounds and now weigh just 85 pounds.

(and no, my body size/shape has not been edited whatsoever in these photos)

Her ruling went on to state that there was a “pattern of similar, if not identical behavior and court involvement,” accusing me of “serial fabrications”. But where was this so-called pattern? This was the only paternity case I have ever filed.

No evidence was ever presented to support the accusation that I had faked any pregnancy, past or present.

Yet, somehow, Judge Mata seemed to treat the unproven claims Woodnick made in his motions as fact. It was as if his filings became the gospel she leaned on to craft her narrative, despite the complete lack of evidence to support it.

In the end, Judge Mata gave Echard and Woodnick what they wanted: she referred me to Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell’s office for possible prosecution and handed down a $149,000 judgment for Echard’s legal fees — despite no fees having been accrued when I tried to dismiss the paternity case after my miscarriage.

It was clear: I wasn’t being punished for the facts, I was being punished for daring to go up against a former reality TV star.

My lawyer and I are appealing Judge Mata’s ruling, but if it isn’t overturned, it opens the door to something far more dangerous: a world where a woman’s right to file a paternity case can be weaponized against her.

According to the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), approximately 30% of paternity tests reveal the presumed father is not biologically related to the child, and if the appeal isn’t successful, this decision could set a dangerous precedent. The Arizona Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) encourages women to file paternity cases when there is uncertainty, and genetic testing is offered to resolve these questions. According to the DCSS, even if the initial presumption of paternity turns out to be incorrect, the state continues to pay for testing until the right father is identified — without penalizing the woman for making a mistake.

Judge Mata’s ruling threatens to dismantle the very protections meant to support women seeking legal clarity through the courts. Instead of offering a space for resolution, the decision imposes a chilling precedent. This suggests that a miscarriage or mistaken paternity claim could lead to severe financial and legal consequences. Courts are traditionally meant to serve as places where uncertainties, like paternity, can be resolved without fear of punishment. However, this ruling shifts that role — punishing women for seeking answers rather than protecting them during an already vulnerable time.

In an effort to pressure Mitchell to file charges against me, Echard has done several interviews. This violates the order of protection I have against him, which clearly states: “Defendant shall not communicate or post untrue or harassing comments regarding Plaintiff online… and shall not cause others to communicate or post untrue or harassing comments.”

On one podcast, he brazenly said about the order that, “I got to the point where I was like, you know what, actually, I’m going to test this. If the police show up and try to put me in cuffs for her, this is going to be a bigger stink than you realize… I’m going to fight this tooth and nail and say this is based on lies.” Then he added, “So I kind of got to the point where I’m like, no, wait, this is all based in a lie. So this protective order to me doesn’t even exist. I don’t really consider it valid whatsoever.” I guess the law doesn’t apply to him. At least he seems to think so.

Echard has also appeared on The Charlie Kirk Show and pushed Kirk for support. Kirk, one of MAGA’s most vocal allies, promised Echard that he would “personally, publicly, and privately” encourage Mitchell to press charges against me based on Echard’s version of the story.

I’ve reported Echard’s violations of the protection order to the police, but they’ve yet to take action. Somehow, “Justice for Clayton” always finds out what I’ve done. They obtain the police reports — both audio and written — and pass them along to content creators, who then make videos dissecting and monetizing them. “Justice for Clayton” claims that I’m misusing police resources, adding it to their ever-growing list of reasons I should be prosecuted. It’s a terrifying cycle, and for someone on the autism spectrum, the constant feeling of being watched, judged, and criticized for exercising my legal rights is overwhelming.

So I end with a message to “Justice for Clayton”:

Imagine, for just a minute, that I am your friend.

In 2017, I come to you, shaken, telling you about a stranger on a plane who handed me a note. She was so disturbed by the way my boyfriend had spoken to me for nine hours that she felt compelled to warn me. In the note, she wrote that she feared for my life if I stayed with him. Even though you weren’t there, would you dismiss her concern, saying she “misunderstood” his behavior?

When I later confide in you that his emotional abuse escalated to physical violence, choking and suffocation, would you be shocked? Would you support me when I file for a restraining order? Would you go to court with me and watch as I start shaking violently, uncontrollably, when I see him in the hallway outside of court? Or would you, like “Justice for Clayton” has done, twist the story, turn me into the abuser, and build an entire movement around defending him as the victim?

If I’d told you I was pregnant by him and he came with me to Planned Parenthood to get abortion pills, would you claim, years later, that I faked the pregnancy, when even he admitted in a deposition that it was real?

Fast forward to 2021: I tell you I’m pregnant by a guy I’ve been seeing briefly. I’m confused and unsure what to do. He tells me which doctor to go to in order to take a pregnancy test in a medical setting. I comply, and they confirm it. Then, at his request, I arrange a video call with the doctor’s office so he can hear it for himself.

He texts me,“Take the f***** [abortion] pills, Laura” and “Stop f***** saying it and do it, and followed by a promise to “call the cops” and “make my life f***** miserable” if I don’t.

Would you have supported my decision to take him to court for coercing me to have an abortion?

Years later, would you claim the pregnancy was fake? Would you ignore the confirmed test at One Medical, the doctor’s video call, and everything else that proved it?

Would you rewrite the story, turning him into the victim, start fundraising campaigns to support his legal battle, and cast me as the villain?

In 2023, after being celibate for a year, I call you eleven days after hooking up with Clayton Echard, and say, “Oh my god, I just took a pregnancy test, and it’s positive.” I’m in shock and can’t believe my eyes. At my request, you buy a test, which I take it front of you, and it’s positive too. Then I ask you to come with me to urgent care so I can take one in a medical setting. When that test is also positive, do you question it?

If I told you I was unsure what to do with the unplanned pregnancy, would you think I was wrong for filing a paternity case when all I wanted was a parenting plan— not money?

If I took a blood test four months later that confirmed I was still pregnant, would you say it was wrong? If you’d seen my obviously pregnant belly grow over the months, would you simply disregard that?

And when I miscarried — heartbroken — and tried to drop the paternity case when neither of us had any legal fees at the time, would you think it was reasonable that the judge didn’t let me? Would you think it was right for the judge to allow the case to drag on for another eight months, allowing my past abusers to show up in court even though they had no connection whatsoever to the 2023 pregnancy? And in the end, would you think it was right for me to be handed a $149,000 judgment and referred to the County Aattorney for filing a case that didn’t require proof to file, although I had it?

Would you think it was fair that the judge invited her father to attend my hearing and sit with Echard’s supporters? What would you think if you’d heard that her father showed one of Echard’s supporters documents about my case that the judge had printed out for him? What would you think if you saw that the judge’s sister was a follower of Echard’s on Instagram? Would you think that maybe, just maybe, there was some bias in his favor?

Finally, in 2024, after a lifetime of symptoms, I am diagnosed with autism. You’ve known me for years — seen my quirks, how I cancel plans last minute, never want to stay out late, and find it painful to make even the simplest of decisions. You’ve watched me struggle, overwhelmed and anxious, time after time. So, if I called you and said, “A doctor just diagnosed me with autism,” would you accuse me of lying? Would you tell me I’m making it up? That I’m “weaponizing” it? Would you actually be offended by my diagnosis and go online to start a fundraiser for people you think “really have autism”?

I’ve been explaining myself to you, a group of people who acts as as if they know with certainty about what happened between me and Echard the night we hooked up, and who “know” I wasn’t abused by Marraccini over our two year relationship.

But you weren’t there.

And that should’ve told me everything.

Still, it wasn’t until I saw one of you admit you were afraid of what happens when this case is over — afraid that without it, the community you’ve built around me will fall apart — that I finally understood:

This was never about me.

It was about you.

You built this community around my destruction because it made you feel righteous. But it’s a fragile thing, held together by your refusal to see me as human. The moment I’m seen as a real person, everything falls apart — the hashtags, the outrage, the cause. And all that will be left is the uncomfortable reality that this wasn’t about me at all. It was about you, and the cruelty you masked as a movement.

© 2024 Laura Owens. All rights reserved. This content, including all text, media, and material on this website, is protected by copyright law. Any unauthorized use—including reproduction, distribution, public display (including reading on YouTube), monetization, or adaptation—is illegal and will result in immediate legal action. No claims of “fair use” will be accepted without explicit written consent. Violators will face severe financial penalties, civil lawsuits, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.