Eight months after Bay Area radio legend Ronn Owens promoted a $140,000 GoFundMe campaign to raise money for himself and his wife, Jan Black, saying they were dealing with “overwhelming” financial difficulties amid his “profound” health challenges, the couple have filed for bankruptcy.
In a chapter 13 bankruptcy filing, the couple have revealed they have $2.3 million in liabilities and owe some $511,000 to more than 40 banks, credit card companies and other creditors, despite Owens’ illustrious and seemingly lucrative 46-year career at KGO-810. The filing comes as their daughter, Laura Owens, faces trial in Maricopa County, Arizona, on allegations that she tried to force Clayton Echard, a one-time star of “The Bachelor,” into a relationship in 2023 by telling him she was pregnant with twins.
The bankruptcy documents were filed last week in federal court, also in Arizona, where the Owens family now lives. Owens, Black and 35-year-old Laura moved to Scottsdale during the pandemic after Owens left KGO for good.
Laura Owens in a photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, following her arraignment on seven felony counts of perjury, fraud, forgery and evidence tampering, stemming from her pregnancy lawsuit against Clayton Echard.
(Courtesy of Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office).
In a statement, Black, a former KCBS reporter, said the bankruptcy filing “stands as objective evidence of the reality of our financial challenges and the necessity of the GoFundMe fundraiser.” She also said the fundraiser remains “active and crucial as we work to restructure our finances and move forward.”
Owens and Black moved to Scottsdale and purchased a $1.5 million home there, expecting it would be better suited to Owens’ mobility issues than their longtime home in San Francisco’s Sea Cliff neighborhood, which they sold for a reported $3.5 million in 2020, according to online records. Owens, 79, has Parkinson’s disease and other illnesses and gets around in a wheelchair. The Scottsdale property also has space for Laura Owens, an aspiring self-help podcaster and long-time equestrian, to care for her multiple horses.
But instead of enjoying a new start in Arizona, Owens and Black have been trying to cope with his ailments, which also includes four bouts of cancer and “some serious heart issues.” Once considered Bay Area media royalty, they also are fending off creditors and struggling to pay their monthly bills. The Aug. 14 bankruptcy filing shows that they apparently stopped paying their listed $14,188 monthly mortgage payments, while they also endured a police raid on their property in January, related to Laura Owens’ pregnancy saga involving Echard.
In May, Laura Owens was indicted on seven felony counts of perjury, fraud, forgery and evidence tampering, stemming from her pregnancy lawsuit against Echard, who currently stars in Netflix’s dating show, “Perfect Match.” She is scheduled to go on trial in early 2026 for “significant felony charges, which carry mandatory prison time if convicted,” her attorney, Joshua Kolsrud, said in June.
The indictment alleges that Laura Owens doctored a sonogram and pregnancy video and lied under oath as she pressed her paternity claims against Echard through June 2024. In November 2023, she testified in court that she was 24 weeks pregnant with twins, but then dropped her lawsuit at the end of 2023, saying she had miscarried at some point earlier without knowing it.
Court records in Arizona and San Francisco show that Laura Owens also has alleged she became pregnant during sexual encounters with three other men since 2014, with her saying that those purported pregnancies also ended in either abortions or miscarriages. In a court declaration, Gregg Woodnick, Echard’s attorney in his paternity case, called Laura Owens a “serial fraud,” saying she used lawsuits and falsified medical records to try and compel a total of four men into relationships
Legal experts have said that Laura Owens’ private criminal defense could run into the six figures, which is one reason that an online “Justice for Clayton” community of YouTube journalists and Reddit sleuths have repeatedly questioned the purpose of Ronn Owens’ GoFundMe campaign which has thus far raised $131,000. They’ve accused the Owens family of running a GoFundMe “scam” and of using the money to fund Laura Owens’ legal expenses.
The bankruptcy filing had done little to silence those questions and accusations. In her statement, Black repeated the family’s insistence that they have not used any of the GoFundMe money to cover her daughter’s legal expenses. Black didn’t respond to a request to describe how she and Owens have used the money and she said the pending bankruptcy litigation “limits what they can say publicly.”
However, Black said: “Ronn has personally written to and thanked every individual who contributed, and their generosity has been a lifeline during a period that often felt hopeless. We truly do not know how we would have navigated these months without their support.”
Black also blasted the “Justice for Clayton” community, whose campaign against her daughter, as well as her and her husband, “has been relentless and deeply damaging.” Black said that she and her husband had been supplementing their pensions and Social Security income — which totals $21,000 a month, according to the bankruptcy filing — with side ventures, but they have been “significantly impacted by ongoing harassment and reputational attacks.”
Previously, Black, Owens and their daughter also have said in interviews that she was pregnant all the times she said she was. In June, Owens said on Facebook: “Let me make it clear that I stand with Laura 100% and am disheartened by the online efforts to discredit us both.”
Meanwhile, the bankruptcy filing may make even devoted Owens’ fans ask how he and his wife, who enjoyed a life of celebrity and privilege in San Francisco, could fall on such hard times.
It shows that more than half of the couple’s combined monthly income of $21,000 — or some $252,000 a year — comes from Owens’ pension. The couple also list $6,640 in monthly expenses — a figure that doesn’t include the $14,188 mortgage payment. As for medical costs, they say they only pay $150 a month for medical and dental care; presumably they have Medicare. They also say they pay $225 for some other type of health insurance, as well as $1500 for life insurance and $425 for insurance for their daughter’s horses.
When launching the GoFundMe campaign in late 2024, the anonymous organizers made it sound like the donations could help pay for health-related expenses by saying that Owens’ medical struggles have “taken a toll, both physically and financially.” The organizers praised the morning talk-radio broadcaster for creating a legacy that “continues to resonate deeply in the hearts of those who tuned in day after day for his wit, wisdom, and unwavering commitment to thought-provoking conversation.”
However, the original GoFundMe statement didn’t specify that the money would be used for any particular purpose. When speaking to this news organization in January, Owens and Black said that Medicare and their other insurance didn’t cover all the “residual” heath-care expenses following his multiple health crises, which also included pneumonia and COVID-19. Over the past couple years, they said Owens spent up to six months in the hospital. When he returned home, he needed an in-home caregiver. At one point, Black said, Owens was given six months to live, but “he’s beaten the odds.”
The bankruptcy filing shows that a significant portion of Owen and Black’s debt — more than $400,000 — was incurred in the first half of this year, after the GoFundMe was launched. In addition to the Owens’ mortgage, the couple’s liabilities also come from more than $300,000 in credit card debt. These creditors include American Express, to which they owe $50,133; and seven separate Bank of America accounts, to which they owe a total of more than $201,000 for miscellaneous purchases, a line of credit and personality liability business debt. Ronn Owens also is being sued by JP Morgan Chase for failing to make payments on an outstanding balance of $51,000.
Under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, Chapter 13 allows individuals to develop a plan to keep their assets, such as a home or car, while developing a court-approved plan to repay all or part of their debts over a period of several years. Black said that having to file for bankruptcy has been “deeply intrusive and emotionally exhausting.”
When Owens first promoted the campaign at the end of 2024, he said it was hard to “admit that the financial strain has become overwhelming on top of everything else.”
“For 48 years, I poured my heart into KGO, sharing stories, sparking conversations, and connecting with you all,” Owens continued, saying he never imagined he would be in a position where he would need to ask for financial help, “but here I am, asking for a little help from the community that has meant so much to me.”