Behind the Scenes in San Francisco | BONUS

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My mother-in-law spent years sabotaging our relationship until karma made her paper it.

Alright, so if you tell me about how we started this story. She moved in for two weeks, lasted five days, left mass, and then pressed her ear against their bedroom door and burst in screaming. When kicked out to a hotel, she called her son-in-law's workplace, pretending his partner had been rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

She's faked a medical emergency. And spoiler, that was just the beginning to find out how it ends. Listen to the okay story-time podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the look-back at a podcast.

The next in '79, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me.

I'm Sam J. and I'm Alex E. Grish.

Each episode we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, federal comedians, and favorite authors, like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.

“I don't think there's a more important year for black people.”

Listen to look back at it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it was good, y'all. You're listening, and I learned the hard way with your favorite therapist and host care games.

This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anyway, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. Any men carry a suit or armament. It's similar to the world that you not to be played with, and just because you had the capability

that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, Bachelor Star Clayton Eckard was accused of fathering twins, but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax.

“You doctor this particular test twice in silence, correct?”

I doctor the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men, who'd been through the same thing. I'm Stephanie Young, this is LoveTrap.

As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.

Listen to LoveTrap podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Stephanie, back with the bonus episode. I want to play you some behind-the-scenes tape from my two reporting trips to San Francisco. The first one is from the night of the continuance.

After Laura filed, an Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation with the court. And Mike was told his hearing would be continued in two weeks. Spirits were low. People who had been following the case felt defeated, and so did Mike. The evening of the continuance, I met up with journalist Megan Fox to hear how the rest

of her day unfolded. Is that recording if you're ready? Yep. All right. It was around 8.30 pm.

Megan and I sound exhausted because we were.

“The first question I have for you is what was your reaction to what happened today?”

It was awful. I couldn't process it until after I did some exit interviews with Omar and Clayton. I couldn't process it for a while. I'm not even sure I still have. I'm not even sure that I have.

But there was a moment when Omar and Mike walked out of the courtroom, and I could see that they were both crying. That was hard. Really hard. And my heart just fell to the floor.

And after I heard what happened, I went to Danielle, who was sobbing. And I hugged her and she fell on my shoulders and sobbed. And that was awful. But there was something inside of me that was keeping me from having any emotion whatsoever. All I said to her was we're not going anywhere, we're not leaving you and we'll be here.

And she was just sobbing and it was, it was awful. We now know that after the alleged life-threatening circumstances that caused Laura to miss the hearing, she showed up at a horse competition that very same week, where she was show jumping and winning ribbons. The online community banded together on live streams.

They launched a fundraiser to help Mike with the expenses of having to come back to court again in two weeks. I was just saying, like I said, I didn't intend for it to be a fundraising stream. I just wanted to tell them what happened. I wanted to have a better stream than yesterday because the Wi-Fi went down, the power

went out, it was a nightmare, my computer died, it was just a shit show.

for a fact that there would be a fundraising stream because I'd already called Dave and like, we got to do this. I didn't think we would raise any money today. I mean, I was going to direct them to the fundraiser and I tell them if you have it, give it, he's going to need it.

They started donating to the GoFundMe so fast and furious that in the first hour of the stream,

it was like $4,000 was raised in an hour. And that's when it started to hit me that, oh my God, we thought we weren't going to be able to raise 3500 for the court reporter. We just passed 4,000 in one hour. The community is just going nuts and it kept going.

By the time I was done with two hours of streaming, they were at $10,000, $10,000 more dollars.

“Why do you think that that what happened today sparked that with everyone?”

Nobody's giving up here. This is not what she thinks it is, she didn't stop anybody. Two weeks later, I went back to San Francisco for the continued hearing. Like I said in episode 11, it felt like deja vu. The continuance threw a wrench into things for everyone, most of all for Mike and his wife

Danielle, but also for the court system, space is limited and that time could have gone to someone who would have actually shown up. Even Mike's attorney Omar Sorato had a family vacation plan that had to be rescheduled due to the continuance. Here's Omar.

So I had a vacation plan and so I come home and I tell my wife that yeah, it got continued and hastal bad news, bad news. And then she's like, what, what and you could imagine how that conversation went. She was very supportive. She was angry, she was really sad.

“She has some choice words for Laura, but she understood the mission and she's like, if”

I'm going to miss my vacation, you better just fucking finish this. It costs us $3300 for the cancellation fee or whatever, it's like, well, just gone to the wind, huh? I guess. And then I just, look, look, we will go on a better vacation, I promise.

Somehow we're going to make this right, we're going to make, I will make it up to you. This example might sound small, but it just proves the ripple effect of Laura's actions.

On my second reporting trip to San Francisco, the energy was markedly different.

I was in the courtroom with everyone, when the domestic violence restraining order against Mike was dismissed. I left the courthouse that day with Mike's attorneys Omar Sorato and Rachel Voraz. We call the Waymo, one of those self-driving cars. It's my first Waymo, it's like a salvation waymo.

You can hear the energy and relief in Rachel's voice. We all piled in and debriefed the DVRO dismissal. Tell me how it was. It went as well as it possibly could have gone. It was literally best case scenario.

Yes, in every respect. Oh, I should start the life. Yeah, the fact that we didn't have to say anything was exactly what we were hoping for. And my fear was, and I was starting to get nurse like, "Hey, it's almost 9.30. We're still not in the courtroom and I was telling Rachel, "Hey, they might be having

like another in-camera, I'm having flashbacks, I'm telling Mike, don't get your hopes up, be prepared for everything because when they call to send and let everybody in and they

basically started just conducting it as if they're going to start a trial, I started

to feel better about it. And then they make note of the time, it is 9.30, we were scheduled for 9 o'clock. I don't see Laura Owens here in the lobby or even here on Zoom. I'm going to dismiss the case, but before that, you can crack the joke with the court or I guess this isn't going to be a quick matter."

She did. Yes. That was when I felt much better. Like how we go. I had to get a sigh of relief.

Yeah, and this really was as gratifying as it would have been to present her with all the evidence that Laura was at a horse show and she's done all these other things to other courts before like this. Any additional evidence that got presented just creates more possibility for chaos, which is I think what Laura thrives on.

So the fact that the judge kept it so simple, she was ordered to be here, she did not appear.

“I told her the consequences, it's dismissed, is really the best result I think in terms”

of trying to minimize the work and chaos going forward. What are her options after this? A peel? She can appeal.

She can also, she can seek another restraining order. She has lots of options to make sure this doesn't end. Do you think she will continue on with that knowing that there's the criminal case going on an Arizona? Yes.

Because I, if that was an attorney. There was no hesitation. We could not. Yes.

She would have never brought this if that was going to be a deterrent.

Yeah.

“The only thing Laura seems to have any fear of is testifying in person, and being subject”

to cross examination, which is not smart because in many ways, submitting a written declaration is more potentially dangerous than having in-person testimony, but she does not seem to be fully aware of, I guess, the consequences of submitting a written declaration that's a lie. What grounds would she even have to file a new one? Well, that, I have no idea.

She is. Yeah. She would say that Mike is behind the JFC account. She would say that Mike walked by her house, but she can't prove it, or she could just say she wants one for all the stuff that's already happened.

I mean, she will win that way, but she can say whatever she wants. Sorry. Yeah. And so, I really think she'll go the appellate route, frankly. And then only if that, I think she wants to maximize how long this goes.

How involved, she can be.

So I think she'll pursue the appellate route, and then after that doesn't work, I think

we'll see another restraining order saying, like, Mike stalking me. That means that's what's going to happen. If that happens, good luck. I can't see me even grass in a temporary. Yes.

Now, if she falls in this county, I mean, it would have to be in Arizona, but they know about her up there, too. Let's true.

“Anything else you guys want to say about today, how you're feeling?”

Did anybody else think it was crazy that it was raining all morning, and then the moment we walked out of the court room, there was a lot of water. There was sun? Yeah. We saw this side.

That's exactly how it felt. Yeah. No, I think it's really seeing Mike and his family there. It really reminds you that this has been his life. It's been so debilitating in so many ways over the last half of many years for him.

Seeing him so relieved and seeing his family so relieved, I think, was worth everything that's been put into it because he didn't deserve this. Another thing is like, we've experienced it like two weeks ago when we were back here. And we thought that we had a mutual dismissal, that whole thing. Then they were celebrating and Mike is in tears and everybody was in tears.

And then I'm sitting there. My phone is buzzing in my pocket. What is this? Alora is asking for remote links or whatever, but she said she was going to be there to whatever. And then I got another one saying she asked for a link for David Jangers.

That's right. And I'm like, what is going on? And then I email Laura, hey, I thought we had a agreement. I just still the case. And then she says, no, we don't have an agreement.

Just like that. And like, he just the devastation in that moment. Mike wasn't devastated in that moment. He wasn't. I was pissed.

I was genuinely pissed. We were up until like two a.m. that night. I went back to working on my cross. People were putting together the trial notebooks. People were documenting stuff.

That whole night was just a weird blur. You could only imagine how it feels for Mike. This is not nothing to him. This has been his life. And the emotional roller coaster for us, just because we're invested legally and also because

Mike has become a friend, who we care about. The emotional roller coaster for us and you and the people that have been following this is so much that even two weeks have last minute back and forth, it's not like a regular trial where you're still kind of like, oh my gosh, I was ready. Now I'm not.

That's a lot of adrenaline. This is like devastation and then elation and then you know, it's circling through those emotions so quickly. It takes a toll on it. That's 100% the truth.

Like you have trials and they get continued and you know, you know, whatever, I guess we're doing them on. Yeah.

But there's never like an audience or like this ground swell will support for somebody.

That just adds in a variable that I did not account for because just seeing the devastation, I could handle it. I was pissed. Right. So being pissed, it just further sinks you into this place.

It's like when you ask me, what do you feel? I feel nothing. Yeah. I was not going to acknowledge any negative. I can't get too low.

It's like we'll be back in two weeks. That was the only thing to say. So time to celebrate now? Yes. Let's go celebrate.

Now I feel all of the things. Right. Yep. We're going to celebrate.

“And we're going to touch the judge goal, I think.”

Yes. Thank you so much for listening. Stay tuned for new episodes in bonus content on the LoveTrap feed.

All right.

“So if you tell me about how we started this story.”

She moved in for two weeks, lasted five days, left mass, and then pressed her ear against

her bedroom door and burst in screaming. When kicked out to a hotel, she called her son-in-law's workplace, pretending his partner had then rushed to the hospital by ambulance. She's faked a medical emergency. And spoiler, that was just the beginning to find out how it ends.

Listen to the okay story-time podcast on the iHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the look back at it podcast.

The next seminar that was a big moment for me, 84 is big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex E. Grish. On each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

With our friends, federal comedians, and favorite others, like Mark Lamont Hill, on the 80s. There you go. It was a wild year!

“I don't think there's a more important year for Black people.”

Listen to look back at it on the iHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it was good job. You're listening to learn the hard way with your favorite therapist or host care games. This space is about Black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really

not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing, and how many men carry a suit or armament. It's similar to the world that you're not to be played with, and just because you have

“the capability that does not mean that you need to.”

Listen to learn the hard way on the iHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins, but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctor this particular test twice in silence, correct?

I doctor the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Like a lesbian, I can imagine it. My mind was blown.

I'm Stephanie Young. This is LoveTrap. Laura, Scott State Police.

As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.

Listen to LoveTrap podcast on the iHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHard Podcast. Guarantee Human.