The Framing of Michelle Hadley

 

Coming off the Depp v Heard case, this case seems rather fitting to put together. This too is a case in which the accusing party was unquestionably believed in an attempt to ruin someones life. The difference here is that this case became a criminal case and the innocent party was looking at life in prison. She lost her job, her home, and her freedom for several months all based on the lies of other people. While the lies were bad enough, it was fairly clear early on, even prior to an arrest, that everything was not as it seemed and yet law enforcement continued in their pursuit against Michelle Hadley.

Twenty-six year old Michelle Hadley had met Ian Diaz in late 2013 on a dating website shortly after getting a divorce. Ian was thirty-five, lived with his mother and worked as an U.S. Marshal. By the following year the two were living together. In December of 2014 the two got engaged and in the early summer of 2015 they bought a condo together in downtown Anaheim California. Michelle had paid the $14,400 down payment and they had gotten a joint mortgage. By the end of summer they had split up.

I did not hear exactly what happened between the two but Michelle has said that looking back there were several red flags in the relationship and there had been some episodes of domestic violence. It was believed that Ian had kept a close eye on Michelle's computer and online activity throughout their relationship. He even talked her into changing jobs to a marketing position at a Disneyland Resort where he used to work. Looking back she is convinced that was so that his friends and former co-workers could help him keep an eye on her. Michelle also believed he was some how tracking her whereabouts. She would later say that anytime she seemed to be outside a particular area of a direct route of where she was headed she would get a phone call from him. He was very particular how she looked and dressed and always seemed to be pressuring her to do things his way. But, most of these things she looks back at in hindsight and sees the signs. Like many in those types of relationships she was deeply in love and feels like she was blinded by things. She never reported any violence or issues with police although it was said that she had talked to a few people, such as friends and family.

Michelle would move out while Ian would stay in the condo but she continued to pay half the mortgage, at least for a while. There were several email exchanges between the two and some were rather bitter. In one email in September of 2015 Michelle wrote to Ian... “Your sins are many, including defiling me and my family with your wicked and evil sexual acts, your financial coercion and irresponsibility, your gluttony, your greed, your lust, your sloth, your wrath, your envy, and most of all your pride. I will bring the full force of the Law and the Word of God against you to judge you.” It is not one that Michelle seemed to be particularly proud of but she had been angry and was “over” dealing with Ian and coming to an agreement about the condo. I quoted this one particular email because it played a few parts in things to come. By this time Michelle claims she was seeing Ian's vehicle following her places, including onto the campus of the local college she was attending. She had reported this to her school and they had banned him from the property. Ian then attempted to use the email she had written as well as the ban from the school property to obtain a restraining order against her but it failed. It is said however that his attempt by Ian did put Michelle on the radar of the local law enforcement.

By the end of 2015 it seems that Michelle and Ian had a legal written agreement that stated that Ian had until June of 2016 to fully assume payments on the condo and if he was unable to do so that it would be sold and the profits would be split between the two. It is unclear if Michelle was continuing to pay part of the mortgage each month while paying rent on her own apartment or if this was to have it legally changed.

It appears that both Michelle and Ian began moving on with their lives. Ian met a woman named Angela in January of 2016 and they were married a month later. It was said that she was pregnant and I will get more into that later but I will just say here that it is uncertain if she was pregnant or not.

By the end of May some weird things were going on. Michelle was getting notices from Google and Microsoft. Google sent her a message that an email account she had never started had been shut down. Microsoft sent messages that her primary email account was being used as a recovery contact for a “handful” of new Outlook addresses. Over the next month Michelle contacted the police at least four times to tell them she suspected someone was impersonating her online. She also contacted the FBI and the DOJ, nothing was done.

On June 6, 2016 Angela Diaz applied for and apparently received a restraining order against Michelle. According to Michelle she did not even know she existed let alone had ever met or spoken to her in any way. The restraining order was obtained because Angela showed several threatening emails she had received allegedly from Michelle. The emails had much of the same “tone” as the one that I quoted earlier. Many threatened Angela's life and included photos of women who had been beaten and naked. They had come from several different accounts seemingly belonging to Michelle. It is unclear if the police ever spoke to Michelle about this or what really was done over the next few weeks pertaining to the restraining order. Around this same time an ad on Craigslist was made looking for a “rape fantasy” partner. This too had the same tone as the emails.

On June 13, 2016, after the restraining order had been apparently granted someone using the name “Lilith Hadley” replied to the Craigslist ad and provided the address to the condo that Ian and Angela Diaz were living in. On June 21^st Michelle received an email from Craigslist asking her to verify that she had created a new ad titled “gang rape fantasy.” Michelle said she emailed them back about fake ads but never heard back from them. Three days later on June 24^th Angela Diaz called 911 saying a man had tried to rape her in the garage of her home. She had red marks on her neck and her shirt was ripped. A few hours later, while returning home after a date, the police went to Michelle's home and arrested her. Law enforcement had warrants to search her phone, tablet and laptop and ceased them. Michelle was interviewed and would later say that when she talked about Ian being abusive in their relationship she was dismissed and taunted basically because she had not mentioned it before. She also stated there was a lot of questions about her sex life post Ian Diaz that really had nothing to do with the case. She was charged with orchestrating the attack on Angela. Michelle's parents posted her $10,000 bond the following day and soon after the emails resumed.

On July 13^th Angela again called 911 and claimed that a “mysterious teen” was lurking around their condo. The following day Michelle was arrested again, this time on a one million dollar bond. The district attorney stated they believed that if Michelle were released that Angela would be raped or killed. This time her parents could not bail her out because it became an issue of whether they did that, or retained a lawyer to fight the charges. Michelle would spend the next three months in jail.

What Michelle did not know is that prior to her first arrest there had been evidence that many of the emails that Angela allegedly received had come directly from the condo itself. The second time emails were allegedly sent they had been done between her arrests where she did not have access to her accounts or her devices as they were still in police custody. She also did not know that in neither incident, the one where the man allegedly attacked Angela or the “lurking” teenager, surveillance cameras at the condo had shown no activity. By this time Angela was alleging that she had miscarried her baby due to the stress involved with everything.

It is believed that the police had universally believed Ian and Angela in their stories because he worked for as a U.S. Marshal and it was basically the “blue code” that stopped them from objectively investigating this case. Keep in mind that all of this went into full gear beginning the end of May and into June of 2016, right around the time Ian was to either take over payments of the condo, or sell it. Michelle always believed that while Angela was making most of the claims, with Ian's backing, that it was Ian who had actually orchestrated this plot.

And then on September 30, 2016, after he had sold the condo and had given nothing to Michelle, Ian went to the police and told them a new story. It is unclear whether Ian and Angela had an issue and had separated or whether he knew that authorities were going to figure out that the charges against Michelle were bogus and he needed to save himself. Ian was now saying that he believed that Angela had set Michelle up and that her claims of a miscarriage were bogus. He told them that when they married she was pregnant but that he had encouraged her to have an abortion because she was unsure who the father of the baby was and that a second claimed pregnant had never existed.

It still took another week to release Michelle from custody, although apparently charges were not dropped. It also took another three months before Angela was arrested on January 6, 2017 and Michelle was exonerated on January 9^th. Authorities would later claim that Angela had “faked checks, jobs, doctors notes and cancer” in the past. Investigators now took credit for solving the case and releasing Michelle saying that emails came from the condo, the area around Angela's father's home and her cellphone. Little was mentioned about Ian being involved but Michelle was not keeping quiet about that aspect. The case was being compared to the book and movie “Gone Girl” where a woman had faked her own kidnapping and possible murder to set up her husband, later she faked a rape to set up another man. Again, the Depp v Heard case has also been compared to this movie.

On October 17, 2017 Angela Diaz pleaded guilty to ten felony charges that included false imprisonment and perjury. She was sentenced to five years in prison. For her part it seems Michelle filed a few lawsuits. One was filed in California in 2017 and in December of 2018 she filed a civil lawsuit in federal courts. Another was filed against the city of Anaheim and the police department in 2019. She claimed that local police had “protected and believed” Ian simply because he was a U.S. Marshall; she claimed that law enforcement knew, or should have known, prior to her arrests that she was innocent of the charges; she alleged that three days prior to her arrested and the alleged attack on Angela law enforcement discovered that the emails were coming from the condo itself. In September of 2020 a judge denied the city in having the lawsuit dismissed and in August of 2021 the city of Anaheim settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount. It is unclear what has become of the others.

Still, Michelle was trying to regain her life. She moved out of the state of California and tried resume things. While she was never convicted of a crime and still has no criminal background, all it takes is a Google search of her name to find her story. She also tends to have to explain a void in her work history. She has alleged, and I have no doubt, that this has caused her much stress and anxiety. And still she pushed and pushed in her idea that Ian was behind it all.

It is unclear exactly what the circumstances were that finally led to Ian Diaz being indicted on charges that included perjury and conspiracy to commit cyberstalking by federal authorities in this case in May of 2021. I went to a legal website and saw that other charges included obstruction of justice and another conspiracy charge. As of now his trial is set to commence in May of 2023.

The scary thing about this is that any one of us could have been or even become Michelle. On the surface it does not seem possible considering how just a little bit of investigating would have uncovered the crime but it is possible because it did happen. Based on the charges Michelle was looking at a sentence of life in prison all because she walked away from a man.