A California woman who was jailed for 88 days after she was falsely suspected of orchestrating the ‘fantasy rape’ of her ex-fiance’s new girlfriend is now suing him and the police.
Michelle Hadley, 32, filed suit in federal court against Ian Diaz, her ex-fiance and a deputy United States Marshal who she alleges plotted to frame her for stalking his new wife because he was ‘so hell-bent on punishing her after their relationship dissolved.’
Hadley is alleging that the Anaheim Police Department became ‘a weapon in his tortuous campaign’ by arresting her and ignoring Diaz’s role in the plot in order to protect a colleague in law enforcement.
‘At its heart, this is a case about the “blue wall of silence,” i.e. law enforcement officers and officials enabling fellow officers to violate civilians’ rights,’ according to the complaint, whose contents were reported by BuzzFeed News.
The entire ordeal started in June 2016 when Angela Diaz sent herself threatening emails, pretended she was pregnant, made false police reports, faked a crime scene and posed as the victim of a ‘rape fantasy’ ad on Craigslist.
The elaborate plot led police to believe Hadley was working to eventually cause Diaz’s rape or death.
But it was revealed that Diaz set Hadley up after police first got a break in September 2016, when one of the IP addresses used to send the emails was linked to Diaz’s Anaheim condominium.
Michelle Hadley (seen in 2017), 32, filed suit in federal court against Ian Diaz, her ex-fiance and a deputy United States Marshal who she alleges plotted to frame her for stalking his new wife because he was ‘so hell-bent on punishing her after their relationship dissolved’
It was later found out the 32-year-old used a VPN and third-party proxy servers to send the emails to herself while disguising her IP address.
The lawsuit, which was filed on December 20, names the city of Anaheim, four Anaheim detectives, and Ian and Angela Diaz.
The lawsuit is an amended version of an earlier filing in California state court from 2017.
Hadley is alleging that they are guilty of 15 different violations, including false imprisonment and defamation.
The lawsuit accuses Anaheim Police of failing to adequately investigate Ian Diaz, whom she accuses of being the mastermind of the scheme.
Hadley says that the authorities never bothered to investigate Diaz despite the evidence of his wrongdoing.
She said that the police and the press mistakenly portrayed the case in sexist terms, describing it as a ‘catfight’ between Hadley and Angela Diaz, who were in the heat of a ‘love triangle.’
‘The crazy ex, the crazy new wife, all those crazy girls getting emotional,’ Hadley said.
‘There’s absolutely no doubt in my head about who did this.
‘There never has been.’
Ian Diaz declined to comment. The Anaheim Police Department said it was not permitted to discuss pending litigation.
Anaheim’s assistant city attorney, Moses Johnson, told BuzzFeed that ‘the position the city’s taking in this case is that the officers had probably cause for the arrest’ of Hadley.
Angela Diaz has since pleaded not guilty to charges including kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Prosecutors said they have no evidence Ian Diaz he was involved.
The lawsuit goes into explicit detail about the alleged abuse to which Hadley says she was subjected by Diaz during their tumultuous relationship.
The two had met in 2013, not long after Hadley divorced her high school sweetheart after just four years of marriage.
Just months after they first met on a dating site, Diaz and Hadley moved in together.
Early on in the relationship, Hadley alleges that Diaz began to exhibit controlling behavior.
He pressured her to dress sexier by wearing crop tops and acrylic nails, according to the lawsuit.
Diaz also wanted Hadley to pierce her belly button.
Hadley is alleging that the Anaheim Police Department became ‘a weapon in his tortuous campaign’ by arresting her and ignoring Diaz’s role in the plot in order to protect a colleague in law enforcement. She is seen above with Diaz during their relationship
Hadley also alleges that Diaz pressured her to leave her job for a marketing position which paid $20,000 less.
She says the job was at Diaz’s ‘favorite place’ – Disneyland Resort, where Diaz once worked.
Hadley believes Diaz pressured her to work there so his former colleagues can keep an eye on her.
She says she agreed to his demands because she wanted to make him happy. She was afraid that if she didn’t, he would leave her.
In court, a detective testified that Diaz regularly spied on Hadley’s computer and her online activity.
Hadley also believed that Diaz was tracking her movements.
Diaz would call her whenever she drove a few miles beyond the zone of her house, job, and the school where she was taking night classes so she can earn an MBA, according to BuzzFeed.
Despite the alleged abuse, Hadley agreed to marry Diaz when he proposed to her in December 2014.
But the controlling behavior continued.
Diaz had been pressuring Hadley for months to have sex with other men while he watched, she alleges.
He was so persistent in asking her that she finally gave in – on Valetine’s Day.
She said Hadley found someone on Craigslist.
Diaz is then alleged to have filmed his fiance and the man having sex.
The next morning, Hadley was so filled with regret she begged Diaz to destroy the footage.
‘No one put a gun to your head,’ he allegedly told her.
In the summer of 2015, the couple moved into a two-story condo in downtown Anaheim.
Hadley put down $14,400 as a down payment and the couple took out a mortgage on the property.
But the relationship deteriorated after they bought the condo, according to Hadley.
Hadley’s lawsuit says Diaz would go on ‘angry tirades and rants for hours on end.’
In one instance, the couple got into an argument while Diaz was driving in his SUV.
He then pulled over the car to the side of the freeway and ordered Hadley to get out, according to the lawsuit.
In another instance, Hadley told Diaz she was leaving him.
He allegedly responded by throwing her down on the bed and holding her down as she tried to get away while screaming.
By the end of the summer, the relationship ended. Diaz took back the engagement ring and accused Hadley of cheating on him.
Hadley packed up her stuff and left, but while she was physically free of Diaz, her name was still listed on the mortgage so she still paid half even though she wasn’t living in the condo anymore.
For the next year, the two would fight over finances.
Their dispute became so bitter that an enraged Hadley wrote in an email: ‘You’re in your body, but your mind is somewhere else…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.’
She also wrote: ‘I will bring the full force of the Law and the Word of God against you to judge you.’
Hadley also feared that Diaz was using his connections with law enforcement to intimidate her into giving up her half of the condo.
She believes Diaz was following her whenever she drove out of Anaheim. She says she noticed an SUV similar to Diaz’s though it had the license plates removed.
Hadley had Diaz barred from her school, Chapman University, after she complained to security officers that she feared she was being followed.
By the end of 2015, both Hadley and Diaz hired property lawyers to end their dispute.
It was agreed that Diaz would eventually assume full payments for the condo. If he wasn’t able to afford it, they would sell the property.
Unbeknownst to Hadley, Diaz also complained to law enforcement about her emails, asking for a restraining order due to her ‘emotional instability’ and ‘history of fits of rage.’
In January 2016, authorities said Diaz met Angela Connell through a dating site.
A month later, the couple was married. Angela, who was pregnant, moved in with Diaz.
In June, Hadley was shocked to learn that Angela, a woman whom she had never met, obtained a restraining order against her.
On June 17, Hadley appeared in court and saw Angela and Ian Diaz in person. It was the first time she ever saw her ex-fiance’s new wife.
Angela walked over to Hadley and handed her a stack of threatening emails.
‘Here you go,’ Angela Diaz told Hadley.
Angela Maria Diaz, 33, was sentenced to five years in prison in October 2017. She concocted a scheme in which she faked cervical cancer, forged a doctor’s note which said she was pregnant, and then posted ‘rape fantasy’ ads which she later claimed was the work of Hadley
‘I had no concept at that time of what was coming,’ Hadley told BuzzFeed.
The emails were doctored to appear as though they had been sent from Hadley’s account.
The phony emails also included disturbing images of decapitated bodies, aborted fetuses and dead women.
Angela Diaz also fooled authorities by using religious language that mirrored the contents of Hadley’s correspondence with Ian Diaz shortly after they broke up.
The situation escalated when Angela Diaz claimed she was the victim of a ‘rape fantasy’ Craigslist ad she claimed was set up by Hadley.
She told police Hadley had impersonated her and responded to advertisements on Craigslist saying she wanted to act out her ‘rape fantasies’.
In reality, Diaz posted an advertisement herself.
She told responding men that she wanted to have forced sex even if she screamed or resisted, and sent out photos of herself, along with details of her daily routine.
The ad, which Diaz claimed was the work of Hadley, attracted at least two men who intended to travel to Diaz’s home in Anaheim before they were intercepted by police.
On June 24, 2016, Diaz called 911, saying a man tried to rape her in the garage of her home – but that turned out to be another one of Diaz’s lies, Deputy District Attorney Richard Zimmer said in January 2017.
She pointed out where her ‘attacker’ slammed her face into the wall, and showed police a ripped shirt, along with an abrasion on her head and red marks on her neck.
Zimmer told Dailymail.com: ‘We believe that whole crime scene was staged and that she did that to herself.’
Angela Diaz’s also had a history of fraud, which included altering a paycheck from her employer to add $2,000, telling her previous boyfriend she had cervical cancer, pretending to be an attorney, forging doctor’s notes and impersonating two of her husband’s ex-girlfriends through email in addition to her fake pregnancy.
‘She’s a serial con artist,’ Zimmer said earlier this year of Diaz.
‘She duped us. It was very sophisticated, well thought out and took a great deal of planning.’
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office lodged 32 counts against her after the deception was discovered, including 10 felonies.
In October 2017, Angela Diaz was sentenced to five years in prison.