Where is Laura? | EP 11

**Stephani Young** (0:01)
Over the past year, Laura's found herself in quite the bind. She's facing a complicated patchwork of consequences, and it can be hard to follow. That's because we're talking about cases across two states, Arizona and California. We're talking about multiple different court systems, civil courts, family courts, and now criminal courts.
So I want to regroup and give you an overview of what Laura's up against. In June 2024, Clayton won his family court case against Laura. That's a civil court judgment. Along with her judgment, Judge Mata ordered Laura to pay Clayton's legal fees, a number that after Laura's failed appeals is nearing $200,000.
Then, seven months later, in January 2025, the police raided Laura's family home in Arizona to serve a search warrant. By that summer, she was indicted in Arizona on seven felony charges. That's the criminal system. You know, the one that sentences people to prison. Here's Clayton.

**Clayton Echard** (1:08)
I hope for justice to be served. And to me, what that looks like is her going to prison. No matter what she's faced up until this point, she has not once said, you know what, I'm sorry.

**Stephani Young** (1:23)
Even after seven felony charges, Laura still decided to renew her domestic violence restraining order against Mike Marraccini. This one in the San Francisco court system. It's a civil case, but for Mike, it's a legal battle he's been fighting for almost 10 years.
And while she battled Mike in court, the prosecutors in Arizona weren't quite done with her yet. Their investigation had uncovered more.

**Clayton Echard** (1:51)
What we know is coming down the pipeline is bigger than anything she could ever imagine and bigger than any of us could ever imagine.

**Stephani Young** (2:03)
I'm Stephani Young, and this is Love Trapped.
At the end of the last episode, we left off in San Francisco. Laura Owens filed to renew her domestic violence restraining order against Mike Marraccini. But this time, Mike had secured legal counsel and was ready to fight back.
The evidentiary hearing was slated for October 2025, and I flew to San Francisco to be in the courtroom. The night before the hearing was set to start, someone in Laura's camp emailed Mike's attorney, Omar Serrato. Omar and Mike thought Laura was agreeing to drop the DVRO renewal. But 12 minutes later, they found out that wasn't the case. Here's Omar.

**Omar Serrato** (3:12)
There was like that surreal moment where you have all this adrenaline, and then it's over, but the adrenaline's still there, and you're trying to like calm down.
Mike is crying, and he's like raising his arms in triumph and hugs all around. And then I get this mysterious email come through my phone.

**Stephani Young** (3:30)
In the email, Laura requested a Zoom link for the next day's hearing, which Omar expected. She would need to agree to the deal in front of the judge. But she also asked for a Zoom link for her former attorney and nurse practitioner.
That didn't make sense. If she planned to dismiss the case, why did they need to be present?

**Omar Serrato** (3:50)
Everybody's still in celebration mode, and so I'm like trying to sitting on that for five minutes, like, what does this mean? And then I emailed her, hey, Laura, my understanding was we had an agreement, is that still the case? And then like 10 minutes later, no, we don't have an agreement. That was it, just a one-liner. And then I had to break the news to Mike, hey, is this still on?
But he took that remarkably well. I was like, well, if I get game on then, I guess back to the original plan.

**Stephani Young** (4:20)
I arrived at the San Francisco Superior Court House early on Tuesday morning, October 21st. The hearing was scheduled for 9 a.m. It wasn't long before a familiar face joined me, Clayton Echard.
He traveled to San Francisco just for this hearing.

**Clayton Echard** (4:38)
I am in San Francisco for the first time in my life. I'm here to support Mike. I'm here because he showed up for me. And that was it. No matter what happens, no matter what the outcome is, I'm here to show Mike that I appreciate him. That's it.
I'm like, I can pause all the shit in my life right now because honestly, this is more important than all that.

**Stephani Young** (5:02)
When Clayton had his family court trial against Laura the previous year, the courthouse in Arizona was filled with his supporters, including the content creators who'd been covering his story.
Now, in San Francisco, that same energy surrounded Mike. Outside the courthouse that morning, I ran into journalist Megan Fox.