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Michelle Hadley's story is a tale of cyberstalking by her ex-fiancé, Ian Diaz, and his wife at the time, Angela Diaz. This led to Hadley being wrongfully accused and spending a distressing 88 days behind bars for crimes she never committed.
The bizarre case is now the focus of Dateline: Diabolical, which shows us the details of their manipulation and deceit.
As per the U.S. Department of Justice, Ian Diaz was found guilty in March 2023 on charges of conspiring to commit cyberstalking, cyberstalking, committing perjury, and obstructing a federal investigation.
This all began back in 2016 when Hadley and Diaz were entangled in a contentious legal battle over the ownership of a condo they had bought together. Following his marriage to Angela, the couple hatched a wicked plot to destroy Hadley's reputation and life. They used technology as a weapon.
Justice prevailed in January 2017 when Michelle Hadley was finally proven innocent. However, the battle didn't end there.
How did Ian and Angela Diaz frame Michelle Hadley on Dateline: Diabolical?
Ian Diaz and his wife, Angela, carefully plotted together, using Ian's job as a U.S. deputy marshal to make their story sound believable. They were having money problems over a condo that Ian's ex-fiance, Michelle Hadley, still partly owned. Instead of solving it the right way, they decided to trick people.
In May of 2016, Angela went to the police and said some men had come to their house in Anaheim for a fake "r*pe fantasy" that Hadley had supposedly set up. The couple sent themselves mean emails from pretend accounts that looked like they were from Hadley.
They also posted ads on Craigslist that made it seem like Michelle Hadley was bothering Angela.
Ian kept pushing the cops, saying Hadley:
“needs to be in f***** cuffs and in a padded room,” as stated in the court papers that Law & Crime got hold of.
The police in Anaheim believed them and arrested Hadley in June of that year. She was in a lot of trouble, facing serious charges like trying to force someone into sex and stalking, which could have put her in jail for life.
She had to stay in jail for almost three months until the detectives found out the emails and the ads were all made up.
When Hadley was finally proven innocent in January of 2017, the person in charge of the legal cases in Orange County, Tony Rackauckas, said she was an:
“Innocent victim of a diabolical scheme.”
The long road to justice for Michelle Hadley
Michelle Hadley’s exoneration was not the end of her ordeal. In 2018, she decided to take legal action by filing a federal civil suit against Ian Diaz, Angela Diaz, Anaheim's city government, and its police force.
Michelle Hadley accused them of falsely imprisoning her, ruining her reputation, and violating her civil rights. It was said that the authorities might have been swayed by Ian Diaz's job as a federal agent when they decided to charge her without thoroughly checking the evidence.
The case was eventually settled in April 2021, with the terms kept private. Ian Diaz managed to stay out of legal trouble for a while, even after Angela’s conviction in 2017.
But in May 2021, he was finally indicted on serious federal charges, including cyberstalking, plotting, and lying under oath. After a trial in March 2023, a jury found him guilty on all accounts.
Kenneth Polite Jr., an Assistant Attorney General, said :
“Ian Diaz abused his position as a deputy U.S. Marshal to execute an intricate cyberstalking scheme that framed an innocent person.”
According to the Office of Public Affairs, Diaz was sentenced to 10 years and one month in jail on June 30, 2023. For Michelle Hadley, the timing of Ian Diaz’s conviction was quite meaningful. NBC News shared that she became a mother for the first time on the exact day of his guilty verdict.
She welcomed a baby girl, whom she lovingly referred to as her:
"Rainbow after a very long storm."
While the legal process has brought some closure, Michelle Hadley's story is still a scary example of how people with power can manipulate the legal system.
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Watch Dateline: Diabolical on NBC's website and Peacock, and you can look up when it will be on TV in your area.
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