The Investigation Report | BONUS

This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport and Sean Clemence. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Each week we talk to someone in show business and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Ben Stillert and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I choose option B. I'm Julie Pignero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I survived nine months in captivity and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart and these are the survivor files. Every week I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Our hometown is not a test tube. 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America plays out in one small town. Developers with right wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land. We need cities on a shining hill. This is our town. A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back. I guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to our town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Stephanie back with another bonus episode. In May 2025, Laura Owens was indicted on seven felony charges in the state of Arizona. Those charges were all related to her conduct with Clayton Eckerd. The Maricopa County Attorney's office shocked everyone when they released a 118 page investigation report detailing the evidence they found to support those charges, which you heard about in episode 10. Next week, I caught up with Clayton's attorney, Greg Woodnick, to dive into the jaw dropping investigation report a little deeper. So in episode 10, we obviously talk about the investigation report that the Maricopa County Attorney's office released. It was released in January of 2026. I guess my first question for you is, did you read it? And as you were reading it, what stood out to you? So much of it stuck out to me. But more than the data that I was reading from the investigators was how I felt it was just unbelievably affirming to see that what we had suspected for so many years, it was so much worse than we suspected. Is it normal to see an investigation report like this? I see investigative reports all the time because I defend people and when you defend people, you're entitled to see the work product of the investigator. So I see these sorts of reports all the time. This was particularly detailed and obviously was extra interesting to me because I've been dealing with Clayton previously, Greg and had gotten to know Michael Marichini and even had knowledge of another victim. So seeing this in writing was quite something. This is obviously a very cumbersome investigative report. There are 118 pages. There are a lot of interviews in here including Clayton, Greg Gillespie, Laura's mom, Jan Black. I don't see an interview on these pages from you. Did you do an interview with the Maricopa County investigators? I didn't formally interview with them, but obviously I knew that there was no open investigation. You were also listed as a witness for the upcoming criminal trial. How did they tell you that you're a witness? How did you find out that you were on the witness list? I think I saw it the way everyone else did. The document became public. I saw my name there and I was absolutely not surprised. It was obvious to me that they would list me as a witness. Whether or not I testify is a different question and certainly not a decision that I get to make. It's a decision that the prosecutor makes and/or obviously Lawrence, welcome to call me as a witness. I will testify truthfully and answer questions to the best of my ability. There were 64 people on the witness list. I was surprised to see that many names on the list. Were you surprised to see that many names? I think it's a testament to how many people have been involved and harmed by the behavior. Just because there's 64 people on this witness list, that doesn't mean that they'll all be called to testify, right? No. In fact, I think sometimes prosecutors list everyone they're supposed to share all potential witnesses and I'm assuming that's what they did. It's very possible that I don't get called. But if the trial does go forward, I think a decent amount of those people may be called as witnesses. It all depends on how the trial plays out. As you're reading through these 118 pages, you obviously said that a lot of the things that your office had looked into were affirmed once you read that. Was there anything specifically that really stood out to you? Three letters, H-C-G. And what was interesting in there about the H-C-G? I think Laura is going to have some explaining to do, should she choose to testify. As we go through the investigation report, there's a lot of instances where the deposition you did with Laura on March 1st was cited. How does it feel that your deposition and your questioning showed up so many times? We didn't know what we know. That's the odd thing about this. I brought Laura in for a deposition to ask her questions. We obviously knew about Michael Mericini. I obviously knew quite well about Greg Gillespie. I was shocked to learn about Matt. I mean, just shocked to learn about Matt, which is weird because we suspected there was someone else. But her blase presentation about there being a fourth man who had accused her of fabricating a pregnancy or whatever her testimony was was a bit shocking. I mean, I remember returning to Isabel and locking eyes with her wondering if that actually had just happened. I don't think that's captured on the audio of the deposition transcript, but I remember literally being like, what the fuck just happened? I think we actually took a break and walked into my office and discussed it because we were both so like, holy cow, there's four men who have claimed this. The fact that the deposition is important to the investigation, I mean, I'm glad I could provide it. I just did what I normally would do in a deposition, which is we prepared for it. I knew what we were going to ask, I knew that the territory that I was going to cover don't know that Laura should have answered all the questions that I asked her. Maybe that's a better question. I've kind of been surprised along the way that she hasn't taken some advice and invoked. I think I advised her during her deposition two or three times that she didn't have to answer questions and that the answers to her questions could be used against her in a criminal process. A lot of times when people are faced with the prospect of felony prosecution, they choose not to answer questions, they invoke their Fifth Amendment right, but Laura did not do that in the deposition, which I think was probably tremendously helpful to the investigators. Something else we see in the investigation report is that the pregnant belly video was her sister Sarah's. We also see that the ultrasound that she used was her sister Sarah's. That being said, I know you spent years investigating this in your office for Clayton's case. Did you ever speak with Sarah? I never spoke with Sarah. Did you ever try to reach out to her sister Sarah? Of course. Of course I did. I think I sent her a couple of emails. And no response. No, no response. Greg Woodnick emailed Sarah Owens Navarro on February 26th, 2024. I'd like to share an excerpt from that email. This is what Woodnick wrote. As I trust you are aware, my office represents Clayton Eckerd and the legal matter involving your sister Laura Owens, currently pending an Arizona. I am assuming you do not want to be involved in this mess, but I think you may already be and are not aware. While I am sure you know some of what has occurred, multiple men have alleged that your sister fabricated pregnancies and medical documents to support her pregnancy fiction. In the current matter, your sister reached out directly to the media claiming that Mr. Eckerd was ignoring her quote-unquote "twins." Paternity tests failed to confirm a pregnancy existed, while the media attention she initiated caused other men to find one another and compare notes. Those notes show a pattern of faked pregnancies as a rise to force relationships, including Laura creating relationship quote-unquote "contracts, assuring promises of an abortion if these men agreed to date her and alleged falsified medical records." While of course you bear no responsibility for the behavior of your sister, it has been brought to our attention that Laura has presented videos that upon close inspection appear to be of use celebrating your pregnancy. pregnancy at roughly 25 to 30 weeks, with your father, Ron, and has been claiming the videos are of herself. Laura's actions are about to land her with very unpleasant legal consequences, including possible criminal perjury charges. Just to put this into perspective, this email was written four months before Clayton and Laura's family trial, and over a year before Laura was indicted on felony charges, including perjury in the state of Arizona. Sarah never responded to Woodnick, but we know she received the email. That's because of Freedom of Information Act request uncovered a bar complaint Laura filed against Greg Woodnick. In that bar complaint, Laura acknowledged that her sister received an email from Woodnick. There was another part of the investigation report that I wanted to talk about with Woodnick. It involves the allegation Laura made to the judge in Greg Gillespie's case, where she speculated that Woodnick and Greg Gillespie orchestrated a violent sexual assault against her. Laura's mom, Jan Black, was interviewed in the investigation report, and we see all of the details. Something that stood out to me was Jan's story, she told investigators about what happened to Laura in March of 2022 when she alleged that you and Greg Gillespie were involved in an alleged rape. So I want to read this part to you in the investigation report from Jan Black's interview. Miss Black Owens told us that Laura ended her relationship with Gillespie in August 2021, and then in February 2022, Laura connected with a guy on Bumble, a dating app. He, Andrew, lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, but said he was going to relocate to Scottsdale. During their video chats, Andrew suggested that she traveled to Hoboken to visit with him, knowing that her sister Sarah lived in New York City. I asked if Sarah knew Andrew beforehand. Miss Black Owens indicated not. Laura decided to go to Hoboken to see her sister. Miss Black Owens stated that Andrew was very particular about the time of Laura's arrival and that she takes public transportation instead of an uber. Laura arrived at the door and Andrew answered while on the phone and handed her a drink, as pre-arranged. Laura consumed the drink, felt that she was drugged, and then violently assaulted according to Miss Black Owens. Miss Black Owens feels that this was a targeted attack which coincided with Mr. Woodenick's ultimatum to drop the suit against Gillespie. Miss Black Owens recounted Laura's description of the evening, and her opinion that the attack was live streamed. I told Miss Black Owens that I understand that this is part of the big picture, however it's outside of the purview of what we're investigating. Laura contacted the Hoboken Police Department and spoke with a detective. Laura reported that she was afraid and did not wish to name Andrew in the police report. Miss Black Owens indicated that the FBI is involved in the case and provided further detail of this. Miss Black Owens told us that the assault occurred in March 2022, and that Andrew texts Laura again in November 2022, said that he was in Scottsdale and asked if she wanted to meet. Laura feared that Andrew wanted to "finish the job." Miss Black Owens stated that all this comes together at the time of the trial with Gillespie. Laura was frightened and sent correspondence to the court, requesting to appear virtually, indicating that she believed that Mr. Woodenick and Gillespie were involved in her attack. Miss Black Owens reported that the court sent this request to Mr. Woodenick also. Miss Black Owens feels that Mr. Woodenick and Gillespie wanted to damage Laura's reputation to make her seem as if she were an unhinged, crazy girl if she were to testify. So this goes back to this allegation from Laura that you and Gillespie were involved in an alleged rape in Hoboken in March of 2022. We heard about that in Episode 5. After hearing that, my question for you is, is this the first time you've heard all of these details that were attached to that? It's bullshit. I don't know other words than this is just not true. I contacted the police, I contacted the FBI. My office obviously concerned with the allegations, tried to find out what the hell Laura was talking about when she wrote that letter to the judge and none of it bore out, none of it. I was never contacted by the police. I was never contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and I had contacted them inviting them to come talk to me about these ridiculous and horrific allegations, none of it was true. That did not happen and certainly if something bad happened to Laura which I was not there, I personally don't believe any of that is true, but certainly I wasn't involved in it. If it was true, I'm sorry, I'm sorry she had something horrible happen to her. I don't think it happens, Stephanie. I think it's an entire lie. Is there anything else from the investigation report that you want to talk about? My general comments on the investigative report is the criminal process needs to play out. It's important to me, Stephanie, that if Laura wants to take this to trial, that she has the most fair trial possible. I want her to have a great trial. I want her to have a great defense to her trial. I believe that as a true believer in the system, our criminal justice system is excellent. She'll have an opportunity if she wants to testify in front of a jury of her peers and answer questions. She can just invoke and not answer questions. I don't know what her choice is going to be up until this point. She has testified and she said some pretty egregiously inconsistent statements, I think, which is the predicate of her being charged with perjury. But I hope she has a fair trial and that there's a just resolution and a just consequence. If she went to trial and she got acquitted because a jury of her peers felt that the state did not beat the burden, so be it, I'm a believer in the system, that's okay. I don't think that's going to happen. I think the jury is going to look at her statements and the records and the video that they found and the physical evidence that they found and her prior testimony and I think she's going to be convicted of multiple felonies. That's my belief. Obviously, Clayton is listed as a victim in the criminal proceedings. You have also been someone that has been affected by Laura's fabricated stories. You're not listed as a victim, but what does justice look like for you? I'm not a victim here, but undoubtedly I've been impacted by Laura's allegations. I'm supposed to have thick skin because of a lawyer or whatever, but it impacts other people. I mean, obviously it impacted my family. I talked about that and I went and I listened to your episode and I heard myself get emotional and the truth is it was really fucking emotional, it sucked. It really sucked when it happened, but it's not just me and my family that got impacted. There are other people hearing how that impacted Danielle was so much different to me than hearing it from Michael. I know Danielle I've spoken to her before, but hearing her have that intimate conversation with you, expressing how it impacted their family, Michael's career trajectory just causes me to think of all the other collateral people that have been damaged by her just verbal diarrhea of lies and allegations and lack of accountability. I really thought this conversation was important to have with you today. You have been kind of a main character throughout this podcast and I just wanted to tell you thank you for your time today and for kind of walking us through a lot of the complicated legal matters in this podcast, but thank you. I appreciate that. I don't think I ever wanted to be a main character in this story. I didn't know what we were getting involved in and I think back Stephanie to early days with Greg Gillespie in my office and the correspondence that Laura was sending and the allegations she was making long before she suggested that Greg and I were involved in some sort of orchestrated rape. Apparently now I'm learning in Hoboken, I didn't even know that and I remember thinking then that the story was insane if I only knew if I only knew that given time we would find these other victims would come forward and want to participate in this process. If I only knew that the social media world was going to find this story as fascinating as they did, if I only knew that this organization loosely associated JFC was going to be these amazing detectives helping with data collection, I knew none of it back then. But at the time I thought the story was spectacular. I thought it was a crazy story I had heard in a while and now looking back three years later and the story is not even over, it's kind of humbling. I appreciate how you've told the story, but it's not a story. I mean the reality is is that Laura really fuck with a lot of people's lives and the truth is that Laura has an absolute history of fabricating allegations when she is in a corner. She did it on the stand in Judge modest courtroom, it'll be interesting to see if she does it again in a criminal trial. Thanks so much for listening and stay tuned for new episodes and bonus content on the love trapped feed. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I choose option B. I'm Julie Pinero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. That's in two Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts. or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) - Hey, this is Hayes Davenport and Sean Clements. - We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. - Each week we talk to someone in show business and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. - We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Ben Stillert, and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. - I survived nine months in captivity and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. Every week I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. - Our hometown is not a test tube. - 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America plays out in one small town. - Developers with right wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land. - We need cities on a shining hill. - This is our town. - I guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies and I'll do you. - Listen to our town on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. - This is an I Heart Podcast, guaranteed human.