Angela Diaz Has Rebuilt Her Life in Arizona Years After Framing Michelle Hadley

Nearly a decade after orchestrating one of the more elaborate frame jobs in recent memory, Angela Diaz is no longer behind bars and no longer using the name that made headlines. She has since moved out of California and now lives in Phoenix, Arizona, going by the name “Angi” and working as the director of an abortion access hotline at Exhale Pro-Voice. Her story, along with those of her ex husband Ian Diaz and his former fiancée Michelle Hadley, is now the subject of Netflix’s ‘A Toxic Love Story,’ which has renewed public interest in what became of everyone involved.

The documentary revisits a case that began in 2016, when Angela Diaz carried out an elaborate online plan that made it look like Michelle Hadley was posing as Diaz and posting rape fantasy ads on Craigslist. What followed was a legal saga that upended multiple lives, exposed law enforcement failures, and eventually unraveled a scheme far more complicated than investigators initially understood.

The Michelle Hadley Case That Started It All

In June 2016, police believed Angela Diaz was the victim of an obsessive stalker who was threatening her with sadistic violence, with the ominous threats beginning after she started dating U.S. Marshal Ian Diaz. Angela and Ian insisted the messages were from Ian’s jealous ex Michelle Hadley, pointing to harassing and threatening communications they received that threatened to kidnap and kill Angela.

The couple claimed Michelle even posed as Angela to reply to a rape fantasies ad, providing Angela’s name, picture and address, which all culminated in an alleged rape attempt in Angela’s garage. In one statement to police, prosecutors said Angela wrote that Hadley ruined her life and should register as a sex offender.

Michelle was arrested and spent 88 days in jail while facing charges carrying a possible life sentence, before authorities discovered she had been framed in what then Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas described as a nightmare. He remarked in January 2017 that it should be made clear in the media and in cyberspace that Hadley is an innocent victim of a diabolical scheme.

A joint investigation eventually determined that the true origins of the emails and rape fantasy solicitations were not Hadley, but originated from the condo shared by Ian and Angela Diaz, Angela’s cell phone, and her father’s home in Arizona. Investigators also began uncovering a pattern of deception that stretched well beyond the case against Hadley.

Angela Diaz’s Guilty Plea and Prison Sentence

Police discovered that Angela had in the past pretended to fake cervical cancer, posed as an attorney and even faked her pregnancy. As prosecutors noted in a statement from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the agency and the Anaheim Police Department also uncovered additional fraudulent activity by Diaz, who faked cervical cancer, pretended to be an attorney, forged doctor’s notes, faked a pregnancy, and impersonated two of Ian’s ex girlfriends over email.

Angela Connell, who adopted the surname Diaz upon her marriage to Ian, entered a guilty plea in October 2017 to several felony charges, including kidnapping, false imprisonment, forgery, and the false reporting of crimes, as well as multiple misdemeanor charges for falsely reporting a crime. She was sentenced to five years in prison, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

At her sentencing, prosecutors made clear they saw little indication of genuine remorse. Even while pleading guilty, Diaz showed no remorse, compassion, or empathy for the victim, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said, adding that he hoped the resolution of the case would bring closure to Hadley so she could move forward in her life.

Angela began serving her five year prison sentence on January 8, 2018, and received a credit of 342 days against that sentence to account for time already served. She was released on July 19, 2020, and finished her required term of parole in July 2021.

Life After ‘A Toxic Love Story’ for Angela Connell

Since completing her sentence, Angela has kept a low profile while building a new career focused on advocacy work. She earned a master’s degree in justice studies and psychology and is the Director of Peer Counseling Services for Exhale Pro-Voice, having connected with the group in 2021. Her bio on the organization’s website states that outside of Exhale, she works closely with her community through counseling, reentry programming, and partnerships with nonprofits and government agencies.

Connell now serves as the Director of Peer Counseling for Exhale Pro-Voice, a nonprofit organization that provides text based emotional support, and the organization describes peer counseling as support rooted in shared lived experiences rather than licensed clinical treatment. According to USA Today, she lives on Indigenous lands in Phoenix, Arizona, and works as a director at an abortion hotline.

Notably, Angela chose not to take part in the documentary that brought renewed attention to her past. She opted out of participating in ‘A Toxic Love Story,’ according to E! Online. Speaking with Netflix’s Tudum, producer Emma Supple confirmed the filmmakers reached out to her directly. “We contacted everybody who is important at the heart of the story to see whether they wanted to take part, and ultimately Angela declined,” Supple said, adding, “We don’t know a huge amount about what she’s doing now,” according to an interview with Netflix Tudum.

Angela and Ian have since divorced, and her current relationship status is unknown. While Connell says she was wrongfully convicted, her guilty plea remains part of the official court record, and there has been no court ruling overturning her conviction.

Where Ian Diaz and Michelle Hadley Stand Today

Ian Diaz’s path through the justice system took considerably longer to resolve than his former wife’s. He was arrested in May 2021, and a federal jury convicted him in 2023 of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking, cyberstalking, perjury and obstruction of justice, and he was sentenced to just over 10 years in federal prison, according to a Department of Justice release. He currently resides at the Federal Medical Center Fort Worth in Texas, a facility that houses about 1,500 male inmates who require specialized care due to mental health or medical issues.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed his convictions in January 2025. Director Alexandra Lacey told Tudum that the filmmakers did approach Ian and wrote him a letter, but he declined to take part in the documentary.

As for Michelle Hadley, whose ordeal anchors the documentary, her life has moved in a markedly different direction. After her release and full exoneration, she returned to her studies, completed her MBA work at Chapman University, and resumed employment and personal relationships, and in March 2023, on the same day a federal jury convicted Ian Diaz, she gave birth to her daughter. She has since become an advocate for domestic violence survivors, focusing on financial abuse, while raising her daughter.

Hadley also filed a lawsuit against the city of Anaheim and four of its police officers, alleging they rushed to charge her based on clearly doctored emails, with the suit describing the case as being about the blue wall of silence enabling a fellow officer to violate a civilian’s rights. Nearly ten years after her arrest, her name has been cleared, but the case continues to raise uncomfortable questions about how quickly investigators believed one version of events over another.

Given how differently each person’s life has unfolded since 2016, from Angela’s quiet advocacy work in Arizona to Ian’s ongoing incarceration and Michelle’s public reckoning with what happened to her, viewers of ‘A Toxic Love Story’ may find themselves with plenty to say about who bears the most responsibility for what one prosecutor called a truly diabolical scheme.