Laura Owens pleaded guilty Friday to fraud charges after faking a pregnancy with former Bachelor star Clayton Echard. The 36-year-old daughter of former KGO San Francisco radio host Ronn Owens admitted two counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, one count of perjury and one count of taking another person’s identity.
The Daily Mail reports 10 of 14 felony charges were dropped under the plea deal. She faces probation on three counts and either probation or up to 12½ years in prison on the remaining count when she is sentenced Oct. 23.
Owens was indicted in May 2025 on fraud, forgery and perjury charges tied to the alleged fake pregnancy. In August 2023 she filed a paternity petition in Phoenix court claiming Echard, 33, fathered twins after a one-night stand. Echard denied intercourse occurred, saying the pair only had romantic contact.
Attorney Gregg Woodnick, who represents Echard and Owens’s ex-boyfriend Gregory Gillespie, said the guilty plea “is a step in the right direction towards acknowledging the significant harm that her crimes caused her victims and the community.”
Echard, who starred on Season 26 of The Bachelor and now works as a Scottsdale realtor, previously said the claims “turned his life upside down” and that Owens became “obsessed” after he ended contact.
He said he felt “vindicated” when she was charged and has suggested her mother, former radio reporter Jan Black, enabled the conduct. Black denied that and has insisted the pregnancy was real, saying her daughter has been “tormented” online and selectively prosecuted.
Earlier this month, A federal bankruptcy court has dismissed the Chapter 11 case of Owens and his wife, Elizabeth Naylor, and barred them from filing a new bankruptcy petition for at least two years after finding that more than $130,000 in GoFundMe donations solicited amid Owens’ cancer diagnosis were largely spent on non-medical expenses.