California resident Michelle Hadley, 29, spent 88 days in jail last year after Angela Diaz, 31, accused her of posting Craigslist “rape fantasy” ads in Diaz’s name. Hadley — who is Diaz’s husband’s ex-girlfriend — was first arrested in June 2016 after Diaz called the police claiming a man showed up at her house and attempted to rape her; according to the Washington Post, police found “visible redness on her neck and breasts, her shirt ripped.” After all, the ads stated she wanted the men to have “forcible sexual intercourse with her, even if she screamed or resisted.”
That wasn’t the extent of Hadley’s alleged harassment: After Hadley posted bail, she was re-arrested when Diaz said she was also receiving threatening messages from Hadley’s email address, which included “links to graphic images of decapitated bodies and aborted fetuses.” Hadley was facing felony charges and the possibility of spending the rest of her life in prison.
But as of Monday, Hadley has been exonerated, with the Orange County district attorney’s office calling her an “innocent victim of a diabolical scheme.” Diaz, meanwhile, was arrested in her home state of Arizona on Friday and is accused of framing Hadley. Evidence indicates that she both posted the Craigslist rape-fantasy ad and sent herself the threatening email messages.
Diaz has also been accused of the following crimes: “faking a pregnancy and cervical cancer, forging doctor’s notes, posing as an attorney and as two of her husband’s ex-girlfriends, and forging a check.” Diaz faces felony charges of kidnapping, fraud, perjury, false imprisonment by menace, among others. If convicted, the maximum time she can receive is 12 years and 8 months in prison with an additional 11 years in jail.
There’s no evidence that U.S. Marshal Ian Diaz — Angela’s husband and, before that, Hadley’s boyfriend from 2013 to 2015 — is involved.
On Monday, Orange County district attorney Tony Rackauckas held a news conference about the case, saying, “It’s often said that true life is stranger than fiction. The facts of this case make that statement spot-on.”
