A 25-year-old Las Vegas woman pleaded guilty and was immediately sentenced to a year in jail for creating a fake Facebook profile to set up an Irvine man with bogus claims of stalking, kidnapping and beating her.

The two had at one time lived together, but the relationship soured.

Stephani Renae Lawson pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of false imprisonment and one count of perjury, both felonies. Three other counts of false imprisonment and one count of attempted false imprisonment were dismissed as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, according to Deputy District Attorney Mark Geller.

Lawson falsely alleged that Tyler Parkervest threatened her. He made his first appearance in that case on Nov. 23 last year, and charges against him were dropped on Oct. 6, 2016.

In May of this year, Orange County prosecutors began further investigations of the case against Parkervest.

According to a motion requesting increased bail filed by Orange County District Attorney Investigator Loren Dawson, Parkervest was accused of stalking, threatening, kidnapping and battering Lawson, his ex-girlfriend.

He was also charged with trying to get her to not testify against him in court.

Lawson filed eight police reports alleging he violated a restraining order, stalked her, threatened to kill her and her daughter and would drive by her home when she was standing outside, Dawson reported.

“Lawson alleged that the threats came from a Facebook account named `Tyler Parker.’ ” Dawson said.

Parkervest was arrested four times between September and December of 2015, Dawson said. The complaint against him was upgraded twice to reflect further allegations, Dawson added.

Parkervest’s bail was even increased to $200,000 in December of last year.

Lawson perjured herself in a May preliminary hearing, claiming Parkervest had threatened her in the two days leading up to the hearing, Dawson said.

She said the threats came via the Facebook account.

“The Facebook messages threatened Lawson from testifying in court and one message stated a friend had fun raping Lawson’s daughter,” Dawson said.

Authorities issued search warrants for Facebook and T-Mobile records and investigators concluded that Lawson set up the fake profile, Dawson said.

“The T-Mobile records showed that Lawson disguised herself as Parkervest with a similar Facebook account,” Dawson said. “Lawson sent herself numerous criminal threats from the phony `Tyler Parker’ Facebook account and reported to law enforcement that Parkervest sent her the messages. Lawson had Parkervest arrested four times for crimes that he did not commit.”

Geller told City News Service that a turning point in the proceedings came during Parkervest’s preliminary hearing when Lawson showed prosecutors screen grabs of threats she said her ex-boyfriend made against her.

“One of my DA colleagues looked at it and said it doesn’t look right and that triggered in our mind maybe we need to look into this further,” Geller said.

The prosecutor praised Lawson for getting the necessary records from the social media and telecommunications companies.

“Loren Dawson worked all summer long on it,” he said.

The companies kept “kicking back” warrants, Geller said.

“We had to go around and around with them all summer until we got the documents we needed,” Geller said.

“I’m glad it worked out the way it did because I didn’t have any doubt I would have been able to convict this kid” Parkervest, Geller said. “Fortunately, we were able to uncover the truth and hold her accountable.”

Parkervest’s defense attorney, Glen Sandler, said his client and Lawson had been living together in Parkervest’s grandparents’ home for about 10 months.

At one point the two got into a dispute and Lawson “knocked (Parkervest) over,” prompting “grandma to kick her out of the house,” Sandler said.

Lawson eventually married someone else, but then sent a text to Parkervest saying she was pregnant and never wanted to talk to him again, Sandler said.

Parkervest assumed they were still dating and wanted to talk about parenting the child, Sandler said.

When he showed up at her residence to talk about it, she got into his car and then “two guys jump out from behind a truck with a gun,” Sandler said.

The defense attorney suspects the initial plan was to just beat up his client, but Parkervest drove off.

“She told the cops, `I invited him over to talk about this kid and he dragged me into the car against my will, drove me down the street, stopped and then let me go, all while keeping a knife to her throat the whole time,” Sandler said.

Sandler praised prosecutors for holding Lawson accountable.

“This makes us sleep a little better,” Sandler said.

Parkervest’s grandparents would come to every one of his court hearings, but his grandmother died before she could see him cleared, Sandler said.

Parkervest moved to Texas with his grandfather, Sandler said. They couldn’t sell the home in Irvine during the criminal proceedings because it was collateral for the bail, he said.

—City News Service

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