Taylor Frankie Paul’s lawyer is claiming Dakota Mortensen made plans to “destroy” her shortly before her season of The Bachelorette was canceled.
During the exes’ Thursday, April 30, protective order and custody hearing, Taylor’s lawyer accused Dakota, 33, of leaking her 2023 domestic violence video to the press, which served as the catalyst to ABC pulling the plug on her season of The Bachelorette days before it was set to premiere on March 22.
“The same day [Dakota] filed his amended request for a protective order, a news outlet published the video of this incident,” Taylor’s attorney said. “Before this release, it had not been out in the public.”
The lawyer explained to the court that the 2023 video — which showed Taylor, now 31, throwing chairs at Dakota as one of her children was heard crying in the background — muddied the waters for her season of the ABC dating series. (Taylor was arrested in 2023 for the alleged incident and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.)
“I understand he denies having done this, but a lot of information lends itself to Dakota leaking this, or at least at the very minimum, having his fingerprints all over this,” the attorney alleged, claiming that the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Jessi Draper hinted at Dakota’s alleged involvement in the leak in her declaration submitted to the court earlier this month.
Taylor’s legal representation claimed that “in addition to the timing, which is extremely coincidental,” Jessi’s declaration from a March incident that allegedly took place at her home in Utah, backed up their claims that Dakota was involved in some way.
“Miss Draper entered the basement of her home, that’s Miss Draper’s home, to find Dakota speaking with Miss Draper’s husband, Jordan [Ngatikaura], as well as Dakota’s roommate, Crew, and [overheard] what they were talking about,” the attorney explained, referring to Jessi’s account of the events in her legal filing.
The lawyer claimed that Jessi’s estranged husband received a visit from Dakota in March, around the same time the damning video came out — and shortly before Dakota filed a temporary restraining order against Taylor along with a request for temporary custody of their son, Ever, 2, following their alleged domestic violence incident on February 23 and February 24.
According to the lawyer, Jessi noticed that Dakota was “very animated” and he was allegedly “venting his frustrations with cops not doing anything, and told her he was going to take matters into his own hands to embarrass Taylor.”
“He specifically told Miss Draper that he planned on leaking embarrassing videos of Taylor to the press, starting with the bar stool video,” the attorney further claimed, saying that Dakota “specifically named TMZ as the outlet, and a few days later, that exact video was released by TMZ.”
The lawyer explained that the only reason to bring up this story was because it allegedly “contradicts how he is attempting to portray himself today,” referring to Dakota’s appearance in court as the exes hash out their restraining orders and try to determine a custody agreement for their child.
“He wants to literally destroy her,” Taylor’s attorney alleged. “He wants to subject her and her family to a new round of torment.”
The lawyer further claimed that there are also “career implications to it” in addition to the “mass embarrassment associated with that.”
“My client’s big objection to his conduct was, you know, this additional harm and embarrassment and shame that he inflicted on my client as well as her children,” the attorney said. “This was a step too far, and we think, shows his true nature.”
Dakota’s lawyer refuted the allegations put forth to the court, saying that his client “denies doing that, your Honor.”
“In fact, he told his publicist not to release the video,” Dakota’s attorney claimed, adding that his roommate Crew can attest to the fact that he allegedly kept saying he didn’t want to release it.
While the 2023 video did affect Taylor’s future as the Bachelorette, it didn’t have any bearing on the exes’ February domestic abuse case. Us Weekly confirmed on April 14 that Taylor would not be charged in the incident.
“After reviewing reports and evidence submitted to the Draper Police Department and West Jordan Police Department, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office has declined to file charges against Taylor Frankie Paul,” District Attorney Sim Gill’s office said in a statement to Us at the time.
As for Thursday’s hearing, the judge issued mutual protective orders for both Taylor and Dakota, declaring the pair must stay 100 feet away from each other at all times
“I’m hoping that you’re not people who just thrive on the drama and the conflict. You’ve got to put your child first and shield the child from this conflict,” the judge said before addressing the custody battle. “I’m going to leave the current order in place. I need to think a little bit more about this lifting of supervision. I have mixed feelings about it.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
