UPDATE: In January of 2017 police reported that Michelle Hadley, whose story you will read below, had been falsely accused of impersonating her ex's new wife in Craigslist 'rape fantasy' ads—and that the wife was in fact the one who had allegedly framed Hadley and created the ads herself. For more information, please see The Daily Beast's updated reporting on this story here.
A California woman is charged with stalking and impersonating her ex-boyfriend’s pregnant wife—responding on Craigslist ads soliciting “rape fantasies” and threatening her unborn child, prosecutors claim.
Michelle Suzanne Hadley, 29, of Ontario, faces life in prison for charges that include six felony counts of attempted forcible rape. Cops cuffed Hadley twice this summer for allegedly harassing the mother-to-be and sending men to attack her.
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Now the case is taking an even stranger turn.
Hadley’s father claims his daughter is being framed by her former beau, who is a deputy U.S. Marshal.
Michael Hadley accused the 37-year-old lawman of seeking revenge because his daughter filed a lawsuit over a condominium the former couple owned together. The latest twist in the convoluted case rivals the plot to psychological thriller Gone Girl.
“The marshal knows her email address,” Hadley said in a phone call on Tuesday. “They were going to get married. They got the condo and everything else and it all fell apart. This is where it all starts.”
Court records and online posts paint a timeline of the relationship between the federal officer and Michelle Hadley, who has a bachelor’s degree in medieval studies and was an MBA student at Chapman University.
They also reveal the downfall of their love affair, which apparently ended with the U.S. Marshal seeking a restraining order against Hadley in September 2015—one month after they purchased a condo together.
The petition includes a cache of post-breakup emails peppered with strange Biblical references by Hadley and her accusations that the U.S. Marshal sexually assaulted her. In the filing, the federal agent accuses Hadley of blackmail and drinking away her problems.
“She frequently tells me ‘I fucking hate you’ and insults my manhood and sexuality,” he wrote in the document. He added, “most of our arguments end with [Hadley] self-medicating with an entire bottle of wine.”
Hadley’s attorney declined to comment on her case.
The deputy included a barrage of “threatening” emails from Hadley in the petition. (His new wife, identified only as “Jane Doe” by prosecutors, also filed for a restraining order against Hadley last month, records show.)
One Sept. 10, 2015 missive even had “Gone Girl” as the subject line.
“You know exactly how God, the Word of God, the Spirit of God are involved with the condo. We both do,” Hadley rants, according to court papers.
“Your end will come, and you will relinquish the keys to the earth,” she continues. “Earth is mine, and the title deed to earth belongs to me... There will be no resolution outside of court unless you are willing to bow before the Lord your God.
“If you are not, then prepare yourself Satan. So let it be written. So let it be done.”
The deputy replies at one point, “I am not sure how God, the Bible, or again, my childhood, has any relevance to the condo and mortgage.”
According to court papers, Hadley allegedly went as far as telling her support group she feared for her life because of the deputy’s concealed carry permit. She told the group he had “lots of firearms” in his possession, emails reveal.
She also claimed she told her support group about the deputy allegedly pressuring her “into having sex with a random man on video camera,” emails show.
Hadley bizarrely thanks the ex-boyfriend for alerting her to a car insurance cancellation in the same message.
“I will take care of that immediately to ensure I am in full compliance of the law,” Hadley writes. “You know me—always the goody two-shoes like a little Disney princess!”
Michael Hadley denied his daughter was behind any of the unreleased messages that are part of her criminal case. He said the deputy and his daughter met at a local Starbucks in August 2013 after “he told her how beautiful she was” but their relationship was fraught with problems.
Not long before they called it quits, the couple bought a condo in Anaheim for $468,500, records show. In her own lawsuit, Michelle Hadley accuses her ex-lover of a breach of settlement for not assuming the mortgage on the home, for which she made a $14,400 down payment.
In his petition, the deputy claims he and Michelle Hadley were engaged for nine months until they split in August 2015 because of “her emotional instability and infidelity.”
Yet, according to Michael Hadley, his daughter left the U.S. Marshal over alleged emotional abuse.
“When she left the place she had nothing,” Hadley said. “She showed up on our doorstep and that was all she wrote. She didn’t want to get anything out [of the condo]. She just wanted to get away from him.”
The father later added, “She has been scared to death of this guy since the day she left him.”
The deputy U.S. Marshal, who is not being named by The Daily Beast because of the alleged rape threats against his wife, did not respond to voice messages and emails.
But Michael Hadley says the lawman is spawning bogus email accounts in his daughter’s name and duping his new wife in the process. The dad vows to eventually show that Michelle Hadley was never behind the Craigslist setup.
“What they’re saying is totally contrary to what’s going on,” he added. “My daughter could care less. She felt so bad that this woman was with him.”
He says Anaheim detectives refused to take a statement from Michelle Hadley, who allegedly welcomed cops to sift through her email accounts. “Nobody ever called us,” Michael Hadley said.
When reached on Wednesday, an attorney for Hadley declined to comment.
Anaheim police Sgt. Luis Correa would not comment on Hadley’s case, as the investigation is ongoing. Detectives, however, have previously spoken to Michael Hadley and addressed some of his concerns, Correa said.
Meanwhile, Orange County Deputy District Attorney Richard Zimmer says he’s confident in the case against Michelle Hadley.
“The police did a very thorough investigation,” Zimmer told The Daily Beast. “What was presented to us… we have enough evidence to prove this case to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“This case just shows some of the dangers of social media and the online world we live in now,” he added.
In a bombshell press release on Monday, the Orange County district attorney accused Hadley of stalking, threatening, and impersonating the 31-year-old wife of her former fiancé. Cops first arrested Hadley on June 24. She was released on $100,000 bail. But, according to police, Hadley continued her Craigslist sabotage and was arrested again on July 14.
Hadley allegedly sent the wife numerous threats and was “routing the emails... through different computers and servers in order to avoid detection by law enforcement,” the DA said in the statement.
The new wife had a protective order against Hadley but Hadley ignored it, police say.
Last month, Hadley allegedly posed as Jane Doe and replied to Craigslist ads soliciting “rape fantasies” and sexual acts resembling rape. She also posted such ads herself, using Jane Doe’s photos to lure men to attack her, prosecutors say.
The MBA student went as far as providing details of Jane Doe’s daily routine and telling the men Jane Doe wanted them “to have forcible sexual intercourse with her, even if she screamed or resisted,” prosecutors state.
As a result, several men allegedly appeared at Jane Doe’s home. One man allegedly attacked her and fled before she could call police.
Prosecutors have not released the Craigslist “rape” ads or Hadley’s alleged emails to Jane Doe. But Orange County court filings reveal a series of disturbing emails between Hadley, her ex, and his new wife.
“I work as a U.S. Marshal and after showing my supervisor the threatening emails, he recommended that I seek a domestic violence restraining order,” the deputy said in his September 2015 petition.
“[Hadley] has told me that I must comply with her demands or be prepared for God’s vengeance and referred to me as Satan and the Antichrist,” he added. “Because of her emotional instability, history of fits of rage, and self-medication with alcohol, I fear for my safety.”
The ex claimed Hadley was initially receptive to working out an agreement on their condo. But days later, Hadley began signing her messages with “In God’s Name,” the petition alleges.
“Please explain to your Real Estate attorney that God’s law is above all laws,” Hadley allegedly wrote, adding, “Prepare yourself, and prepare your armies.”
The former flame also divulges a litany of Hadley’s allegedly erratic behavior.
Hadley “flew into a fit of rage” in one February 2014 episode and began screaming, “I wish you could be a better man, sexually,” the petition states. In response, the deputy allegedly told her to go online and find another man. A week later, Hadley informed him she bedded someone she met online. She blamed him for “making her cheat,” court papers state.
In another incident, in June 2015, Hadley allegedly grabbed the deputy’s puppy by the neck and warned, “Don’t make me hurt you.” Hadley allegedly explained, “Sometimes he runs around and gets crazy and sometimes you have to hurt him, so he doesn’t hurt himself.”
Two months later, the couple was arguing over “a lack of intimacy” and Hadley’s alleged infidelity. Hadley allegedly yelled, “I hate you, I hate this house, and if it were up to me, I’d burn this motherfucker down.” The ex states he was afraid to be alone with his fiancée, so his mother stayed with him for a few days.
Attached to the petition are a series of emails between the former couple, beginning on Sept. 3, 2015, discussing what to do with their condo now that they split up. The federal lawman states he hasn’t made a decision on the condo “since you left only 4 days ago… after confirming to me that you were having affairs with multiple men.”
“The Anaheim Police Department in conjunction with the United States Marshal service are fully aware of you, your issues with me, and have copies of every email we have exchanged since you left,” he says in another email.
He wrote that he received a phone call from a Chapman University campus cop advising him that he’s not allowed at the school because Hadley told police she was concerned for her safety, the document shows.
In another email, Hadley informs him she told her support group and “all necessary parties” of her safety concerns, as the U.S. Marshal is licensed to carry a concealed weapon.
Hadley mentions her mistake of moving in with him, “despite my very valid reservations about your character and conduct.”
“You do not get any woman, let alone the woman you purport to love, drunk and find a random man for her to have sex with while you make a pornographic video of her. That is rape, which is against the law,” Hadley wrote, adding, “Luckily, there are plenty of text messages and a video to prove that you and the man you found coerced me sexually.”
The restraining order petition was dismissed nearly three weeks later, online court records show. But on June 1, 2016, the deputy’s new wife requested one.
“Ms. Hadley has been emailing me for over one week, repeatedly threatening my life, my marriage, my safety, and slandering my husband,” the woman stated in her filing. “Ms. Hadley has used over six different email addresses to contact me, despite a request to cease communication. I am now fearful of leaving my home, have had to delete my online presence, and am incredibly emotionally distressed.
“I am fearful of being ‘raped,’ ‘attacked,’ ‘killed.’ I have had to completely uproot my life, including missing work at a new job to quash this issue,” she adds in the petition. “The tone and tenor of these emails escalates and there seems no sign of stopping.”
The woman attached a collection of messages she received in May 2016 from a “Jason Ray” on LinkedIn warning her about her husband. “MICHELLE WAS HIS ONE TRUE AND HONORED FIRST LOVE. YOU ARE NOTHING TO HIM,” the sender wrote.
Like Hadley, “Jason Ray” also makes allusions to Christianity.
“There are legends that Adam had a wife before Eve who was named Lilith, but this is not found in the Bible,” another May 25 message begins. “The legends vary significantly, but they all essentially agree that Lilith left Adam because she did not want to submit to him. According to the legends, Lilith was an evil, wicked woman who committed adultery with Satan and produced a race of evil creatures.”
The message rages on in capital letters: “YOU ARE NOT PERFECT, BUT YOU ARE THE EVE TO HIM ... MICHELLE WAS THE TRUTH----HIS LILLITH [sic] BUT SHE AND THE OTHER WOMEN WOULD NOT SUBMIT TO HIS CONTROLLING WAYS.”
On May 26, the wife replies to Jason Ray, saying, “Michelle Hadley, I want you to please stop e-mailing me.” Four days later, she received a message, allegedly from Hadley.
“I hope you are scared of death tomorrow. Be prepared. Don’t sleep, be watchful of the Daughters of God,” Hadley allegedly wrote. “We will steal your child and we will watch as it dies.”
Hadley advises the wife to heed her warnings about her ex. “[He] is using you for everything. Don’t you see this? He is obsessed with me, I am his treasure princess, you are nothing.”
Hadley concludes, “Watch your back tomorrow.”
—with additional reporting by M.L. Nestel
