Michael Marraccini: The 2018 Restraining Order and Echard Case

Michael Marraccini is a San Francisco man who dated Laura Owens beginning in 2016 and who says she faked pregnancies, a miscarriage, and ovarian cancer during their relationship, years before she filed the paternity suit against former “Bachelor” contestant Clayton Echard that made her nationally known. His account predates the Arizona criminal case against Owens and has been folded into it, and he has spent the past two years in his own California court fight to undo a restraining order she obtained against him in 2018.

What He Says Happened During the Relationship

According to Marraccini, Owens made repeated claims of pregnancy, miscarriage, and abortion during their relationship, all of which he came to doubt. She also told him she had ovarian cancer and produced what he says were fabricated medical documents to back it up. Owens eventually admitted to her father, longtime Bay Area radio host Ronn Owens, that she had never been pregnant by Marraccini.¹

In May 2024, a forensic investigator verified that text messages exchanged between Marraccini and Owens from March 2016 through November 2017 originated from Owens’ phone, corroborating parts of his timeline.¹

Marraccini has also publicly disputed claims Owens made in a TEDx talk. In the talk, Owens said Marraccini physically abused her on a trip to Iceland and had begged her to go. Marraccini says the opposite: that she insisted he go, that boarding the plane was “the worst mistake of his life,” and that there was no evidence of any physical marks. In late 2017, Owens sent accusations of physical and sexual abuse to Marraccini’s then-girlfriend.¹

The 2018 Restraining Order and His Effort to Vacate It

On January 7, 2018, Owens and Marraccini had a public confrontation. Two days later she filed for a domestic violence restraining order against him in San Francisco County Superior Court, and a temporary order was granted on January 10.¹

In July 2018 the parties entered a stipulated two-year DVRO. The agreement contained no factual findings of domestic violence and no admissions of wrongdoing by Marraccini. It was renewed in September 2020, extending it through July 10, 2025.²

On July 10, 2025, the day the order expired, Owens asked the court to make it permanent. Marraccini brought on new counsel — attorney Omar Serrato in August 2025 and attorney Rachel Juarez, known for appearances on the television show “Hot Bench,” in October 2025.¹

In September 2025, Marraccini filed his own motion to vacate the 2018 order entirely. The motion argued under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 473(d) that Owens had obtained the order through “extrinsic fraud,” pointing to fabricated medical records, injury photos, and pregnancy claims. It also cited developments in Arizona, including a June 2024 trial ruling by Judge Julie Mata and the May 2025 felony indictment against Owens, as evidence of a documented pattern of fabricating evidence in court.²

The renewal request collapsed before those arguments were tested. Owens failed to appear at a scheduled hearing on November 5, 2025, and Judge Gold dismissed her petition. Owens attributed her absence to a medical emergency related to anorexia nervosa.³ As of June 2026 there is no active restraining order against Marraccini, though Owens has filed a Notice of Appeal, with her appellate brief due June 29, 2026.¹

The Alleged Warning From Ronn Owens

A sworn declaration filed in San Francisco County Superior Court added a striking piece to Marraccini’s account. A witness stated that in 2016 Ronn Owens privately warned Marraccini that his daughter had “a tendency to exaggerate or even flat out make things up.” According to the witness, Ronn Owens convened the meeting to address Marraccini’s suspicions about a pregnancy claim, urged him to stay in the relationship, and promised to help him “get out of” it once Laura stabilized.³

Ronn Owens has denied it flatly. In emails to the Bay Area News Group he said, “I have never said my daughter ‘makes things up,’ ‘exaggerates,’ or anything remotely similar — not once, not to a friend, not to a family member, and certainly not to [the witness].” He also denied that the meeting described by the witness ever took place.³

How His Story Connects to the Echard Case

Marraccini’s account drew wider attention because of its resemblance to what prosecutors say Owens later did to Clayton Echard. In August 2023, Owens filed a paternity suit against Echard, claiming to be pregnant with his twins. Echard denied both the pregnancy and having had sex with her. Owens later said she had miscarried.⁴

In June 2024, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Julie Mata ruled that Owens had acted without “good faith,” citing “serial fabrications” in her declarations, deposition, and testimony. The judge called Owens’ claims “fraudulent and baseless,” found that investigators had determined she altered an ultrasound image and created a fake pregnancy video, awarded attorney’s fees to Echard, and referred the matter to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.⁵ Owens was ultimately ordered to pay more than $149,000 in attorney’s fees.²

Marraccini was pulled directly into the Echard proceedings. On June 10, 2024, he was served with a subpoena to testify as a witness in Owens v. Echard. During that day’s hearing, Owens’ then-attorney David Gingras contacted three police departments claiming Marraccini was violating the California DVRO by being present. All three departments confirmed he was not.¹

A Maricopa County grand jury indicted Owens in May 2025 on seven felony counts connected to the Echard case, including fraudulent schemes and artifices, forgery, perjury, and tampering with physical evidence.⁶ In November 2025, prosecutors filed seven additional felony charges involving a different man, Greg Gillespie, whom Owens dated briefly in 2021 and who investigators say she also targeted with a fabricated pregnancy claim.⁷ Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has said other allegations against Owens fall outside her office’s jurisdiction because they occurred outside Arizona.⁸ That jurisdictional line is why Marraccini’s own experience, though central to the pattern prosecutors describe, has not produced criminal charges of its own.

Owens faces 14 felony counts across the two Arizona indictments. She has pleaded not guilty to all of them and has denied wrongdoing, describing the charges as the product of “coordinated harassment, misinformation, and public pressure.”⁴

1
Victims of Laura Owens. Michael Marraccini
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Victims of Laura Owens. Motion to Dismiss Under CCP 473
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Mercury News. Bachelor Pregnancy Scandal Ronn Owens KGO
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Fox 10 Phoenix. Laura Owens Woman Accused Faking Pregnancy Former Bachelor Star Indicted Additional Charges
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San Francisco Chronicle. Laura Owens Fraud Paternity Echard
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Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Laura Michelle Owens Indictment
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Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Laura Michelle Owens Second Indictment
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KTAR. Laura Owens Bachelor Fraud MCAO