DeAnna Pappas is facing legal trouble.
The Bachelorette alum was arrested on a domestic battery charge, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, after an altercation with her ex-husband Stephen Stagliano in the early hours of Feb. 27. She was released on $20,000 bond that same day.
The two—who share kids Addison, 11, and Austin, 9—announced they were getting divorced after 11 years of marriage back in January 2023. The divorce was finalized last June.
However, more insight into the events surrounding DeAnna and Stephen’s alleged altercation came to light one week after her arrest when Stephen’s mother Lynn Stagliano filed a declaration March 7 stating, according to court documents obtained by E! News, that she “very clearly smelled alcohol on DeAnna’s breath” while picking Austin up from her former daughter-in-law’s home for school.
In her response, the 43-year-old filed a domestic violence restraining order against Stephen, 40, that same day, alleging multiple cases of verbal and physical assaults against her, often in front of their two children, as well as detailing what allegedly happened the night of her arrest.
In the petition, DeAnna said that she had called her husband on Feb. 26, the night of the arrest, after their daughter, whom the Bachelor Nation member noted has special needs, requested to sleep at his house. Once he arrived, DeAnna alleged, “Stephen told me that I needed to walk closer to him because he wanted to smell my breath to make sure that I was not drunk.”
The reality star added, “I had not consumed any alcohol.”
DeAnna then said that she ignored his comments and walked back to the garage, attempting to shut the garage door behind her.
“I heard noise behind me,” the petition read. “I turned around to see Stephen following me into my garage.”
After multiple attempts to shut the garage door, DeAnna said that Stephen “refused to leave,” then “used his hand and pushed the garage door upward again so that it would not close.”
It was at this point that DeAnna said she feared for her safety and retreated back into the house. Upon hearing him rummage through what she believed to be the garage or the trash, she says she went back out to the car to see if he had stolen something.
“Stephen then took his hands, grabbing me, and then forcefully shoved me,” DeAnna alleged in the petition. “He pushed me back again. In fear that he would hurt me, I immediately went back inside the house and locked the door while I waited for the police to arrive.”
Once the police came, DeAnna said that she was informed her ex had accused her of being drunk and that he was pressing charges against her for domestic violence.
“Stephen had told the Sheriff that I was the aggressor who assaulted him which was false,” she stated in the petition. “At no time was I requested to test for alcohol despite Stephen’s allegations. In fact, the officer that arrested me exhibited no concern that I was at all intoxicated.”
She also alleged several other incidents of domestic violence against her, dating as far back as 2016 while she was pregnant with their youngest, in which she said Stephen verbally assaulted her, held her hostage and physically assaulted her without provocation.
Additionally, she alleged that he spread false information by going “on a rampage” telling people she had been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder along with fabricating claims that he had proof from their marriage counselors.
“Stephen has gaslit me, manipulated me, and emotionally abused me for years,” she said. “This is just another way he is trying to control me. He has tried to paint me as a drunken alcoholic since we started this divorce process.”