Toxic - Season 1 Episode 2
#Toxic
#CinemaJourney
#Toxic
#CinemaJourney
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Are there patterns in toxic relationships that you see over and over again in the cases
00:10that you take on?
00:11There are patterns.
00:12So I've created a taxonomy.
00:15It's basically four categories, and we see this playbook over and over and over again.
00:20Psychos, assholes, pervs, and trolls.
00:24Every single case that we get is at least one of these.
00:28But this case has a little bit of all four categories.
00:32It's often said that true life is stranger than fiction.
00:35The facts of this case make that statement spot on.
00:38Super strategic and malicious, ass .
00:40Angela deserves what is waiting for her.
00:42Suffering and death is the only way.
00:44Acted anonymously, troll.
00:47They were using a VPN to hide their tracks.
00:49And then a lot of what happened had this dark sex undercurrent, which, you know, ticks
00:55the perv box.
00:57Dead babies, beheaded children.
00:59Psycho ticks that box.
01:01They were engaged, but now he's moved on months later.
01:04Somebody has stolen your fairy tale.
01:06It's the jealous ex.
01:08When you're fed a story and it takes root in the media, it's very hard to get away from
01:12that.
01:13Oh my God.
01:14Today, I still can't get justice when they're looking at the same evidence I'm looking at.
01:19That becomes reality.
01:20The perception becomes reality.
01:24When it comes to love, betrayal is the death of a thousand dreams.
01:29In the unraveling of countless lies, you can spend years picking up the pieces, examining
01:36them, rearranging them, digging through the past to make sense of it all.
01:44Navigating through my personal heartbreak took me back to my roots as an investigative journalist.
01:49Hi, I'm Elizabeth Chambers.
01:50Elizabeth Chambers.
01:51Elizabeth Chambers.
01:52Elizabeth Chambers.
01:53Outside the Los Angeles Police Department.
01:56It ignited a curiosity inside of me about love that fractured.
01:59Oh my God.
02:00Inflicts lasting trauma.
02:01Hi, I wanted to see if they could ask you some questions.
02:04Absolutely not.
02:05And can lead to tragedy.
02:07And that's when my world ended.
02:09I feel that it's part of my calling to meet with the victims, the survivors, to listen
02:14to their stories, show how it can happen to anyone, and expose the truth.
02:20I'm Elizabeth Chambers, and this is Toxic.
02:26When a relationship ends, a person can become unrecognizable.
02:40The humiliation, loss of power, the pain, can all drive someone to their breaking point.
02:47Sometimes when that mask comes off, things can escalate beyond just heartbreak, showing
02:52there's no limit to what some people will do for revenge.
02:59Hey there.
03:00Cool.
03:01This is AV Common Marks.
03:02Let's roll some sound.
03:04Roll.
03:05There's so much media coverage of this case.
03:07Why do you think people are so interested in it?
03:09Any crime of passion is going to be, is going to attract the media, because that becomes relatable
03:15to people.
03:16Everybody's had an argument with a significant other.
03:18So Ian and Angela had a whirlwind romance.
03:21Can you tell me how they met, and how their relationship developed so quickly?
03:24Ian and Angela seem like like-minded, kindred spirits.
03:30They met online in January of 2016.
03:33They both, in a very kind of Orange County way, they love the outdoors, they're into health.
03:39They were married inside of a month, which if you think about it is crazy, but it does happen
03:45sometimes.
03:46They're taken with each other.
03:48They had a great place to live.
03:51He had a thriving career.
03:52A respected U.S. Marshal.
03:54They're newlyweds.
03:55They're madly in love.
03:57They really have everything you could want.
03:59And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, Angela begins receiving these emails four months
04:11into the marriage.
04:14Beyond just threatening.
04:17They're foreboding.
04:19They really seem to be predicting a very dark future for Angela.
04:30Some of the emails would show pictures of dead women who'd been, you know, brutally injured
04:39and, you know, decapitated, and it was all very, very confusing.
04:45Ian's automatic reaction is that the emails were coming from his ex, Michelle.
04:57Michelle and Ian had not been broken up long at all.
05:00It was a very fresh thing.
05:01He had gone ahead and gotten married very quickly, so he assumed she was jealous.
05:07He assumed because Ian and Angela were living in a condominium that Michelle and Ian had actually
05:13purchased together that maybe she felt that somebody had moved in, kind of stolen her dream,
05:18living in her castle with her prince.
05:20It's every morning.
05:21It's every night.
05:22She wants to be dead.
05:23It's only going to be worse to show.
05:25Yeah, Hadley.
05:26Lilith is her demon cult fanatical identity.
05:29We're asking you guys, is there a way to put this girl in cuffs tonight?
05:34Maybe that'll get through to her.
05:35Although, I get the feeling it might not.
05:37So what does Angela do in response to the emails?
05:40Angela does what I think most people would do at that point.
05:43She goes to the Anaheim Police Department and files for a restraining order, which she
05:47gets very readily.
05:50After Angela files and gets the restraining order, the emails, not only do they not stop,
05:56but they escalate.
05:58And they become more threatening, more foreboding, and more perverse.
06:07She calls the Anaheim Police Department.
06:09They come in, puts out the puzzle pieces of what's been going on.
06:13So what's going on?
06:15Let me explain.
06:19Okay.
06:20So.
06:21My name's Ian.
06:22I'm a U.S. Marshal.
06:24Sorry.
06:25This is Angela.
06:26You guys have been here a whole bullet.
06:30Regarding the same girl?
06:31Regarding the same bitch.
06:32I'm sorry, I'm going to curse.
06:34She sent an email with a Craigslist ad in it for a guy that wants to do a rape.
06:39Like a fantasy rape.
06:41So.
06:42From her email?
06:43Yes.
06:44We have like maybe over 60 emails from her since May that are all the same.
06:59Angela's getting what would be any woman's worst nightmare, right?
07:03Dozens of emails from her husband's crazy ex detailing horrific threats against her life.
07:08But then she gets a link to a Craigslist post.
07:11That post is in the section of Craigslist where you can solicit sex.
07:15It's somebody pretending to be Angela.
07:18Posting that she wants someone to come to her house and rape her.
07:22She said, hi there.
07:24I've been dying to have a rape fantasy while walking my dog.
07:27Following me to the door and forcing me to the condo.
07:29Forcing me not to screen.
07:30Dragging me upstairs and taking me from behind on the bed.
07:33If you can fulfill this tonight, please let me know.
07:35I am 30, tall, gorgeous and ready.
07:37My address is this address.
07:39He's coming here to do some.
07:41To do some great fantasy.
07:42To do some great fantasy that she set up.
07:44Threatening this.
07:45Okay, so how do we know that she set it up?
07:48So Ian and Angela are convinced that it's Ian's ex, Michelle, pretending to be Angela.
07:53Posting on Craigslist that she wants somebody to come to her home address, break in, and rape her.
07:59But they don't necessarily have enough proof for the cops to come that night to arrest her.
08:05Because the emails in the Craigslist post are from different fake or anonymous accounts.
08:10This ex-girlfriend of mine has it out for this woman.
08:14Because she hates her and hates the fact that I'm not with her anymore.
08:17Stupid as it may sound, that's what's happening.
08:20And she set this up.
08:22No one else set this up.
08:23At what point is this girl put in handcuffs?
08:27Anaheim detectives spend weeks reviewing all of these threats, trying to build a case.
08:34And throughout all of this, the harassment continues.
08:38The problem with her is, every time we think it's going to stop, and every time we think, like, our guard goes down a little, it's she won up there.
08:46Oh.
08:47She started sending, we lost a child in April.
08:50In April.
08:51I'm sorry.
08:52And coincidentally, I'm actually pregnant again.
08:54Which is congratulations.
08:55Well, congratulations.
08:56That's a positive thing.
08:57Yeah, yesterday.
08:58So it's like the silver lining, but...
09:01She lost the child because of all this.
09:04The stress.
09:05Yeah.
09:06This whole nightmare has been orchestrated, arranged at the hands of his former girlfriend.
09:12This is her right here.
09:13And she lived here?
09:14Yeah.
09:15Then she, I found out she cheated on me with like six or seven dudes from Tinder.
09:18No problem.
09:19I told her, you're cheating on me.
09:20You need to make a decision what you want to do with this relationship.
09:23And I had Leslie, my friend here, just in case as a witness.
09:26And she packed up and she left.
09:28So obviously, you know, make sure your doors are locked and all that.
09:31Then there's a fateful night where it goes beyond just email.
09:38A man shows up at the home answering the rape fantasy preg's list post.
09:45And brutally attacks Angela.
09:48Grabs her by the hair.
09:50Slams her up against the wall.
09:52Beats her.
09:53And in her head, she must have been thinking, this is just the fruition of those emails.
09:58This is all of that coming true.
10:00Within the Craigslist community, there's a subculture of people.
10:04You'll get an address and you will show up there with the expectation that somebody there wants to take part in a rape fantasy.
10:10And it means that if you've had enough and you say no, well, it's a rape fantasy.
10:15So that really doesn't matter.
10:16There are no rules.
10:17So it's the darkest of the dark.
10:19It's the most evil of the most evil.
10:26But then somehow she manages to fend this guy off.
10:30He flees.
10:31With this growing mountain of circumstantial evidence and the attack, police finally decide, OK, it's time to make an arrest.
10:41And on June 24th, Michelle Hadley is finally taken into custody.
10:45The emails and threats immediately stop.
10:50Michelle faced multiple felony counts, including attempted forcible rape and stalking.
10:56Facing life in prison if convicted on all counts.
11:00It felt like a happy ending for Ian and Angela.
11:03Right.
11:04So it was very cut and dry.
11:05There was no question.
11:07And the police department moved very, very swiftly.
11:10This was it.
11:11The case was over.
11:12Slam dunk.
11:13It was Michelle because, I mean, who else would it have been?
11:19That was the story then, that Michelle was the worst kind of criminal imaginable.
11:25And we were fed that script for months.
11:27And then all of a sudden, it became obvious that we had all been asking the wrong question.
11:36It's the ultimate plot twist.
11:39It stops on a dime and the entire thing flips around.
11:43So I'm at home.
11:44All of a sudden, there are police at the door.
11:48So I see Leslie Carlson there.
11:52She is a U.S. Marshal and a good friend of my ex-boyfriend, Ian.
11:53Leslie serves a restraining order on me.
11:57And it didn't have much information in it.
11:58But it did have Angela's name.
11:59And that they were married.
12:00And I see them basically saying that I'm sending harassing emails to me.
12:02And it didn't have much information in it.
12:03But it did have Angela's name.
12:04And that they were married.
12:06And I see them basically saying that I'm sending harassing emails to her.
12:07I don't know who this woman is.
12:08I don't even have her email address.
12:09A few days later, I actually called Anaheim Police Department.
12:12And I left three different voicemail messages on me.
12:14And the evidence of a good friend of my ex-boyfriend, Ian.
12:17Leslie serves a restraining order on me.
12:18And it didn't have much information in it.
12:19But it did have Angela's name.
12:20And that they were married.
12:23And I see them basically saying that I'm sending harassing emails to her.
12:28I don't know who this woman is.
12:29I don't even have her email address.
12:33A few days later, I actually called Anaheim Police Department.
12:36And I left three different voicemail messages for them.
12:39I said, look, they're saying I sent these emails.
12:41I didn't.
12:42Please call me.
12:43I want someone to investigate this.
12:46The next thing that happens, it's a Friday night.
12:51I just remember pulling up on the cul-de-sac,
12:55and these lights turn on.
12:57And a detective slaps his badge on my door
13:00and shines a light in.
13:02So I immediately feel relief because I'm thinking, OK,
13:05they're here to investigate.
13:07You know, hallelujah.
13:08Like, yes, like, I've been waiting for someone
13:10to come and talk to me.
13:11So I hop out of the car, and he says,
13:14we have a warrant for your devices.
13:15And I'm thinking, great.
13:17They'll get my devices, all of them.
13:19I'll give them my passcodes.
13:20They'll see that I haven't done anything.
13:24But he basically says he's going to place me under arrest.
13:27Under arrest, like, I don't understand.
13:30Like, I didn't violate the restraining order.
13:32I'm trying to wrap my brain around this situation.
13:34And they processed me that night and put me in a jail cell.
13:42And then I found out that Angela got attacked.
13:48At this point, I'm shaking because I'm starting to realize
13:53that this is on a different level than I initially thought.
13:59In the jail cell that night, I called my parents.
14:02And my dad said, they've set the bail really high.
14:05They had set it at a million dollars.
14:09He gave me the choice.
14:10He said, we can use that money to hire a really good attorney
14:13and prove your innocence.
14:15But, you know, that means you're going to have to stay in there for a while.
14:19And I told him, okay, let's get the attorney.
14:23I told him I can handle it.
14:33I had no idea what it was going to be like either.
14:35I mean, I just, I didn't know what to expect, but I just knew that they were charging me with life.
14:41And so, at this point, it was like, well, my only chance is to get an attorney and get out of here and prove that I'm innocent.
14:53What was going through your head?
14:54I was completely bewildered and just, you know, you're up all night because you're upset.
14:58You're confused.
14:59How am I in here?
15:00I didn't do anything wrong.
15:01And I knew without a shadow of a doubt who the mastermind was behind it.
15:12I met Ian online in October of 2013.
15:18On the first date, he told me that he was a U.S. Marshal.
15:21Of course, immediately I'm thinking, oh, okay, great.
15:25These are guys who want to help people.
15:28Like, they want to serve their country.
15:30They want to serve other people.
15:31So, I'm in my head already checking off these boxes that I have of like, this is someone who, you know, is that stable kind of all-American boy.
15:43Basically, after that, the relationship really sped up.
15:46It started to get, you know, physical very quickly.
15:49We were spending a lot of time together.
15:51We met in October of 2013 and less than six months later, we moved in together.
15:57We dated a little over a year.
16:00And then all of a sudden, he's proposing to me.
16:03So, I was very surprised.
16:06Pretty shortly after we got engaged, one day, we're driving through downtown Anaheim.
16:12And there were these new construction condos.
16:15And he says, okay, let's stop and like, go look at these.
16:17He wanted to buy one.
16:19So, we, you know, signed the paperwork to go on the mortgage together.
16:24And he told me he had no money to put towards the down payment.
16:28So, I put the entire deposit down.
16:30It was about $14,000.
16:32How did that affect your relationship?
16:34You're not moving in together.
16:35You're engaged.
16:36It was an interesting time because there was this dynamic where there was this excitement,
16:39also mixed with this dread and fear and worry because there were so many issues in the relationship.
16:46What were those issues?
16:47What did you guys fight about?
16:48So, he was very controlling.
16:50He decided where things went, what type of furniture that we had.
16:53He would tell me what to wear.
16:55He wanted me to have a belly button ring.
16:57He wanted me to get fake nails.
16:59There was even one time where he sort of floated the idea of getting a boob job.
17:02Like, I mean, there's just this element of he was building the body that he wanted.
17:07At any point, did you consider leaving him?
17:10There was one time after we had moved into the condo.
17:13I remember I was starting to go get my stuff from the master bedroom.
17:19And he followed me up and I went to get my purse and I went to go around him to leave.
17:26And he grabbed me and he pushed me down on the bed.
17:32I just remember clawing on the bed and screaming and he's pulling me at my ankles back.
17:40And I just remember feeling horrified because he had guns all over the apartment.
17:45He had a shotgun under his bed.
17:47He had guns in the closet.
17:49I was completely outmatched in this situation.
17:52Like, I didn't think I could get out of that.
17:55All I remember was breaking down and sobbing.
17:58And he threatened to call the police on me.
18:01The fear is hard to describe to people who haven't had to exit one of these relationships with someone who has guns and has the ability to track people.
18:11You're like, well, I don't know if I can battle someone who is in law enforcement.
18:17You feel like you're stuck, you know?
18:20Right around the time it started to get really difficult.
18:23We went out one night and he spent the entire night staring at this girl.
18:28To the point I was like, hey, I'm right here.
18:30Like, and I remember calling him out on it and just saying, like, this feels so disrespectful.
18:35And he told me, you're not a special snowflake.
18:40And I always sort of had this belief value.
18:43We're all unique little individual people and we deserve to be valued and cherished.
18:47And so something about this just cut right to the core of my belief system.
18:52Well, the next day, he had his friend, Leslie Carlson, there.
18:58And I remember just thinking to myself, this is it.
19:01This is the moment I have to leave.
19:03I knew he wouldn't do anything while she was there.
19:05Like, he wouldn't do anything dramatic.
19:07I had a tiny little Jetta.
19:09I packed it full of everything I could fit in there.
19:11And I got in my car and that was it.
19:14And I left.
19:15After Michelle moved back in with her parents, she found herself in a dispute with Ian over their condo.
19:25Ian refused to move out or sell the condo.
19:28Michelle then had to hire attorneys to help negotiate an agreement between her and Ian.
19:33They finally agreed that Ian could stay in the condo if he paid the mortgage within six months.
19:38If he failed to do so, a backup clause would be enacted and he would have to sell the condo immediately
19:43and they would split the profits.
19:47After the engagement was broken off, how did Ian treat you?
19:50He would keep going back and forth between making sure I knew he intended to stay in the condo,
19:54he intended to keep the condo, but then also trying to get me back, wanting me to come back.
19:59So, you know, I didn't feel completely free.
20:03And there were always, like, little hidden threats.
20:06Like, he would tell me, oh, I just canceled your car insurance,
20:09so you better watch out while you're on the road so you don't get pulled over.
20:12And, of course, I'm thinking, well, he's law enforcement.
20:14He's probably going to have someone pull me over.
20:16Were you still afraid at this point?
20:18So I think for the first few months I was.
20:21But then, you know, when you don't hear from them, you think, okay, they've moved on.
20:25But then the six months had come and gone on the mortgage assumption process.
20:31And once I make it known that I want to enforce the settlement agreement, which says that we just sell the condo in that case,
20:38all of a sudden someone started sending emails to Angela.
20:43What is it like as a father to see your daughter in jail?
20:59Oh, it's disturbing.
21:00Did you ever for a moment think that your daughter was capable of this?
21:06Capable of it? Absolutely.
21:09But she would never do it.
21:12Your daughter is sitting in jail.
21:19You are trying to piece this together.
21:21Well, I knew she didn't do it.
21:23So we stepped back and figured out what we were going to do here with the Anaheim Police Department.
21:28And I said, well, what evidence could you possibly have that she did this?
21:32The detective says we saw activity on Michelle's email account in her inbox.
21:38I said, that's not evidence that Michelle sent emails.
21:41I go, that's in her inbox.
21:43And he also states that all these men were showing up, responding to all the Craigslist rape fantasy ads.
21:49But there are 22 cameras on the condominium.
21:52They're everywhere.
21:53The police report states that nobody was seen coming or going.
21:56They had no proof that somebody showed up.
22:00So the question always came up is, if nobody's seen coming or going, then why is somebody in jail?
22:06At that point, you decided that you had to take this investigation completely into your own hands.
22:11Oh, yeah. Basically, yeah.
22:13Because you don't know to what extent somebody has been able to frame your daughter up.
22:21So this would be Ian's TRO.
22:25TRO stands for?
22:26Temporary Restraining Order.
22:28On July 15th, the day after Michelle was arrested, he went down to the court and filed a TRO against her.
22:35I have no idea why he did it, but he put a lot of evidence that implicated him.
22:40All this email.
22:41Emails from Loathe This Truth, which is the account that was responding to all the Craigslist rape fantasy ads,
22:49and also created three rape fantasy ads to get responders to come to the condo.
22:58So this comes through, and you can see right here, that's the IP address.
23:01It tells you what device she's actually using.
23:03Right.
23:04And that's Angela Connell's MacBook Pro.
23:08Oh, my God.
23:10And there's the IP of the condominium.
23:13Wow.
23:14Crystal clear.
23:15So somebody's at the condo sending these.
23:17Right.
23:18We don't know who, but we know somebody using her account.
23:22Angela could easily send this, but you will notice this information here.
23:29You know, this was Ian's doing.
23:31I created him, and he wants only me.
23:33Right here.
23:34Signed, Michy.
23:35Did he ever, did she even go by that name?
23:37Yes.
23:38That's her nickname?
23:39Michy.
23:40Uh-huh.
23:41Then who would know that, right?
23:42Angela?
23:43Yeah, exactly.
23:44So you see it's not complicated information.
23:46Right.
23:47The police department had access to all of this in plain sight.
23:49And that's why it's so infuriating is that it's just a plethora of just garbage that they had, it all went back to them.
23:56Every last bit of it has the footprint of Ian all over it.
24:00Everything does.
24:03And so, you know, my first thing was I got in touch with the Anaheim Police Department.
24:07And they said, it's not a police department issue.
24:10That's a U.S. Marshal issue.
24:12So I called up the U.S. Marshal Service in downtown L.A.
24:15And then they say, well, that's not a U.S. Marshal's issue.
24:18They just blew it off.
24:20What was unusual about this case was that the police department, the Anaheim PD, had this couple's back.
24:30And, like, they just accepted as evidence all these emails Ian and Angela just forwarded.
24:36They didn't do any diligence.
24:38I mean, even when they did subpoena the platforms, they didn't look at the results.
24:42Which, in this case, would have shown that all the emails and stuff originated from Ian and Angela's home.
24:48It was incredibly frustrating, to say the very least, that nobody was listening.
24:54I can tell you that I was boiling the shells in jail.
24:58And he's running loose.
25:00And thinking that, to this day, I still can't get justice.
25:04When they're looking at the same evidence I'm looking at.
25:10So you've now been in jail.
25:12Tell me what that was like.
25:14Um, you're treated like an animal, you know?
25:17Like, I mean, they're, I mean, basically the attitude was just, you can just, you know, sit in urine and feast, like, we don't care.
25:26The deputy said, well, because of the crime that you're charged for, you're gonna be in a high security section.
25:32There, you don't see outside, you don't see the sunlight.
25:36And so, very quickly, you lose track of what day it is.
25:40Did you fear for your life?
25:41Oh, for sure.
25:42I mean, because I looked so different and I sort of stood out.
25:46The more violent, you know, um, criminals that were on the upper level, they thought I was a snitch.
25:52And so they would harass me and accuse me of being a snitch.
25:55And so every time the deputies transported me, I was scared to death that one of them would attack me.
26:03I was thinking, they're gonna eat me alive, you know?
26:07I scream, wholesome, goody-two-shoes, they're gonna eat me alive.
26:16Your daughter's sitting in jail, you are trying to piece this together.
26:20And at the same time, there's a huge media storm happening all around you.
26:23What was that like for you?
26:25It, we saw the effects of it right away, okay, with our business.
26:29I mean, it was like, who wants to do business with, you know, the craziest woman in the world?
26:33Right, I mean, her face was plastered everywhere and everybody was calling her the crazy ex.
26:37Right, and she did get the award for the craziest person in Orange County for that year, so.
26:42I didn't insult to injury.
26:43Yeah.
26:48It felt like no matter what you showed them as evidence that I wasn't doing it, they didn't care.
26:54When you were in jail, did you think you were gonna be there forever?
27:00Yeah, because it had already been almost three months.
27:03So I was losing hope towards the end, I thought I was gonna be there forever.
27:06Good morning and thank you all for coming.
27:13I'm here to announce the filing of a felony complaint against Angela Marie Diaz.
27:22Good morning and thank you all for coming.
27:25I'm here to announce the filing of a felony complaint against Angela Marie Diaz by the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
27:33The charges include two counts of kidnapping, two counts of false imprisonment, perjury, and 21 misdemeanor counts of filing false police reports.
27:42As Michelle, her dad, and her entire legal team are trying to convince Anaheim Police Department that Ian is behind all of this,
27:50they learn that out of nowhere Ian has walked into APD to report that Angela is actually the one behind the entire thing.
27:58Diaz now stands accused of pretending to be Ms. Hadley and sending the emails and rape fantasy solicitations to herself in order to frame Ms. Hadley.
28:07During the course of the investigation, we uncovered other deceptions including fake cervical cancer, pretending to be an attorney,
28:14forging doctor's notes, faking a pregnancy, and impersonating another one of John Doe's ex-girlfriends over email.
28:20Ian said that they were pregnant with twins.
28:27And they are both really excited about it.
28:31Ian goes and buys a minivan.
28:33They get car seats.
28:34And then he realizes that she was faking it, that she had bought like a fake pregnancy test off of Etsy, that she bought fake sonograms.
28:44Angela would go to work, but really didn't have a job and was like bouncing checks.
28:50I think she's a professional grifter.
28:52I think there are people that they survive by cheating people.
28:56That's what they do for the Anaheim PD and for the DA.
29:00The blame shifted toward Angela.
29:03These two women, Michelle Hadley and Angela Diaz, are connected through a common man.
29:07For the time being, we're going to identify that man as John Doe.
29:10Our joint investigation eventually determined that the true origins of these emails,
29:14they originated from the condo shared by John Doe and Diaz, from Diaz's cell phone,
29:19and from Diaz's father's home in Arizona.
29:22The evidence we currently have does not show involvement by John Doe.
29:25You are now exonerated of charges.
29:35How did that feel?
29:37Angela was arrested, but they hadn't arrested Ian, so it was bittersweet.
29:44On the one hand, it was what I had been waiting for because it meant I could go back to school.
29:49I could try to get a job again.
29:51I could try to start living normally.
29:53But there was this other side of it where they were clearly trying to cover up Ian's involvement.
30:03And that was, um, it made me angry.
30:12You don't come out of 88 days in jail the same person that you went in.
30:17I mean, I feel like I had nothing to lose after that.
30:20I knew, obviously, from the get-go who had done this.
30:24You were in jail because of one person and one person only.
30:28Ian created his own worst nightmare because he took someone who was just this quiet, people-pleasing empath,
30:35and he basically turned her into someone who was angry and ready to fight.
30:41When I knew that I was getting out of jail, all I could think was, let's do this.
30:47We are hearing for the first time from the woman at the center of a story that captivated the country.
30:51Michelle Hadley.
30:52Michelle Hadley.
30:53Michelle Hadley.
30:54Michelle Hadley.
30:55Michelle Hadley.
30:56Is sharing her story.
30:57Won't be silent.
30:58Speaking out.
30:59We talked to people in the media about the case.
31:00You certainly think he's involved at this point.
31:01Oh, I do.
31:02Absolutely.
31:03I, I, Angela could not have written those emails unless she had the information from, from Ian's.
31:09And I would not back down because I already knew he was involved.
31:15There was a level of corruption to what happened to me.
31:18And it really centered around the failure of law enforcement to do any sort of investigation.
31:27When the DA's office held that press conference, they very specifically told my attorney we don't want Michelle to come to the press conference.
31:35They did a whole PowerPoint where they presented this as a love triangle.
31:40And then Angela was the jealous wife trying to get back at me.
31:44And they actually put Ian up on this PowerPoint as the John Doe.
31:47And when I saw that, I just remember thinking, wow, what a story they have concocted.
31:54To hide the fact that they had lots of evidence that he was doing it.
31:59So we were all pressing the DA's office, Anaheim PD, to do something about it.
32:06But then in the end, Anaheim PD decided not to press charges against Ian.
32:12There is this idea that police officers will protect one another at any cost.
32:20The cops and the detectives in Anaheim were protecting this federal marshal.
32:24And it was just not going to be the case from their perspective that anybody but the federal marshal was the good guy in the story.
32:31At this point, the APD's behavior is absolutely egregious.
32:35All you have to do is watch that initial body camera footage and you can see Ian's lies are laid out right there, clear as day.
32:43He's saying that she cheated on him.
32:45She cheated on me with like six or seven dudes from Tinder.
32:47But she didn't.
32:48He's the one who cheated on her.
32:50Ian said Michelle showed up at her condo.
32:53She's doctor here.
32:54Well, there are cameras everywhere and not a single piece of evidence or proof showing that she did that.
33:00You see him on the video acting like he's the one trying to get her off the mortgage.
33:04We're in the middle of the refi right now to get her name completely off the mortgage.
33:08Okay.
33:09When in reality, Michelle was the one fighting to get Ian to pay his share.
33:13And through all of it, he was able to use his position of power and his connections in law enforcement.
33:18Who served it?
33:19A friend of mine named Wesley.
33:21Michelle and her dad have all of the evidence showing that Ian is guilty.
33:25So I cannot understand why Anaheim Police Department did not pursue Ian.
33:29So I set up an interview with our former public information officer to try to get some answers.
33:41He's not coming.
33:42What?
33:43You're joking.
33:44Mm-mm.
33:45You're joking.
33:46Well, unfortunately, I got a call asking that I not participate in the interview.
33:50All caps.
33:51Sorry.
33:52Oh.
33:53My.
33:54God.
33:55And he didn't think it was a good idea to explain this?
33:58Because Anaheim is telling them, we don't want you to do it.
34:01He's not.
34:02He wants to, but they're not letting him.
34:04I guess that, the thing that's, the thing that's upsetting is that's proving the point that there's some sort of like brotherhood.
34:09Yeah.
34:10That they're like, we don't want you to do it, so you shouldn't do it, even that you can do it.
34:13On October 17th, 2017, Angela Diaz pleaded guilty.
34:24She was immediately sentenced to five years in prison.
34:27I did not show up to her sentencing hearing and read a victim's statement because it felt like a big sham to me, because I knew who the mastermind was behind it.
34:39And then as the years kind of ticked on, I remember thinking, well, if they haven't already done it, they're probably never going to do it.
34:46So I was losing hope.
34:49And you hear so many stories where the victim doesn't really get any justice.
34:55But then, who is Harry Lidsky and how is he involved in this case?
35:03It is very rare to hear these words come out of my mouth because I don't use this for a lot of people in law enforcement at all anymore.
35:11But I would say he's a hero.
35:14Ian Diaz.
35:16He was, I think, the mastermind.
35:18Ian misdirected the Anaheim Police Department, I think.
35:21He sent them down a path.
35:24All the while he was covering his tracks and I think setting Angela up to take the fall.
35:29And, and it worked.
35:34The Orange County DA's office was able to uncover Angela's involvement, but not Ian's.
35:38Ian was still out there with his gun and his badge.
35:40Angela's role in it was obvious.
35:43Ian's role was a bit harder to uncover.
35:46But Ian made a mistake.
35:49We found some critical evidence when looking through Angela's Hotmail account.
35:55There was a few dozen emails that purported to come from Angie actually traced back to a DOJ-issued IP address.
36:05We were able to trace that further back to Ian's work phone, to his U.S. Marshal's phone.
36:10He never gave anybody the password of that.
36:12Nobody looked at his work phone but him.
36:14But also the Craigslist piece was, was big.
36:17I mean, he lied about it.
36:18He explained his Craigslist use as minimalist.
36:22I think he said he remembered selling a bike once.
36:25It turns out, I think somebody described him as the king of Craigslist.
36:31Not only was he using it, but he was using the personals.
36:34He was using it for sexual encounters.
36:37Ian had this extreme fetish for cuckolding, which basically is somebody who gets off on watching their partner have sex with somebody else.
36:45And even though Michelle did not share those kinks during their relationship, Ian got like a stranger off of Craigslist to come over and have sex with her.
36:55Ian, you set up essentially a scheduled rape in your own home.
36:59How did that come about?
37:01So the first time he asked me to do this, he told me he had this fantasy of me having sex with another man.
37:11And I was very clear in my communication.
37:14I said, you know, that's not something I would ever be interested in doing.
37:17But he kept pressuring.
37:18So it felt like no matter how many times I said no, he kept pushing, pushing, pushing.
37:22I eventually broke down and I said, look, I'll do it once.
37:25I have to be on something because I can't go through with it if I'm, you know, like sober.
37:30Did he watch or did he record it?
37:32He was in a separate room, but he was recording.
37:36And so I was on, you know, NyQuil and also three shots of liquor.
37:41So I don't even have a really clear recollection of it.
37:44But I remember afterwards him saying, you know, you better get tested because his condom fell off.
37:53And I just remember thinking, first of all, I didn't even want to do this.
37:57And like, you put me at risk for something that I didn't even want to do.
38:01Like I told you, no, so many times.
38:03And I had been put into this situation that was the complete and utter opposite of who I was at my core.
38:10My identity had basically just been obliterated at this point.
38:14I started sobbing uncontrollably.
38:17And all he said was nobody put a gun to your head.
38:20How did it make you feel?
38:22Completely violated.
38:24That for me is one of the darkest memories of my life.
38:27It makes you feel so worthless because like my body was just an object for him to do with what he wanted.
38:35Michelle's relationship with Ian involved the use of Craigslist for sex.
38:40So an extensive history of using it in all the ways that manifested themselves in the case against Michelle.
38:48That was huge for us.
38:51And for one of the ads to come and engage in a rape fantasy with Angie.
38:57Craigslist required a user to authenticate that they were doing this voluntarily, consensually.
39:04And Ian used his phone number.
39:07Craigslist sent him a text.
39:09That post was approved by Ian on his cell phone.
39:16He told the Anaheim Police Department that he never clicked it.
39:20But Craigslist confirmed that he did.
39:22The next morning after he realized the mistake he made, he went and got a new phone number.
39:27Proving that for us was a big domino tip in the case against Ian.
39:32Do you think he was concerned at this time?
39:34I don't know if he was.
39:35I don't know if he was.
39:36He might have thought after so much time that he was out of the woods.
39:41He seemed surprised when we arrested him.
39:43Ian was finally arrested.
39:48But Michelle had to wait two more years for the case to go to trial.
39:52Even behind bars, Ian stuck to his story that Angela, the real crazy ex, was the one behind the entire scheme.
39:59But thankfully, the jury didn't bite it.
40:04He was convicted of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, cyberstalking, obstruction, and perjury.
40:09He was sentenced to 121 months in federal prison.
40:13We always wanted justice for Michelle.
40:16We always wanted Ian to face the justice he deserved.
40:20And we never stopped.
40:21It just took a long time.
40:23How did it make you feel at that time?
40:26And I'm glad I didn't give up.
40:31That's a lot of your life, to be fighting and dealing with something like this, you know?
40:40But it's very healing to get that justice.
40:43I mean, I could start moving on with my life.
40:46I know that not every victim gets that.
40:51But I wish we lived in a world where more did.
40:53Because to finally have that moment where the world is saying, yes, we see.
41:00It was a really powerful moment.
41:02Yeah.
41:03My girlfriend, I see an overdose.
41:12I'm trying to resensitate her right now.
41:14He's a doctor.
41:15I'm supposed to trust him.
41:16He couldn't be poisoning my daughter.
41:18Can he?
41:19I cannot think of anything worse than losing my children.
41:23I knew I was going to prove that he murdered my sister.