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Three years after throwing a chair at her ex, Taylor Frankie Paul’s legal battle is done

A hearing Friday was the final step in a three-year process for the reality TV star. Leaked video of the dispute prompted ABC to cancel her “Bachelorette” season.

(Bethany Baker  |  The Salt Lake Tribune) Taylor Frankie Paul appears in 3rd District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 30, 2026. Paul was charged for domestic violence assault in 2023, and the charge was reduced to a class A misdemeanor on August 7, 2026, after Paul completed the terms of a three-year plea-in-abeyance deal.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Taylor Frankie Paul appears in 3rd District Court for a hearing regarding protective orders in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 30, 2026. Paul was charged for domestic violence assault in 2023, and the charge was reduced to a class A misdemeanor on August 7, 2026, after Paul completed the terms of a three-year plea-in-abeyance deal.

Utah reality star Taylor Frankie Paul’s three-year legal battle came to an end Friday, as a judge lowered felony charges of aggravated assault to a misdemeanor.

“I believe the state’s motion is that she’s been compliant with everything,” Paul’s attorney, John Williams, told Third District Judge James T. Blanch at a virtual court hearing Friday that served as a final review of Paul’s 2023 aggravated assault charges.

After being charged with domestic violence assault, Paul reached a plea-in-abeyance deal in August 2023, which was set to run three years. That agreement required her to obtain both a substance abuse evaluation and a domestic violence evaluation, and complete any recommended treatment. She also could not violate any laws above a minor traffic violation.

Under the terms of that deal, Paul’s felony charge would be reduced to a class A misdemeanor if she met all the conditions. Friday’s hearing marked the end of those three years. Blanch agreed that Paul had fulfilled the deal’s conditions, and called the reduction of the charge “a favorable outcome” for her.

It was unclear if Paul, one of the stars of Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” was present online for the hearing.

The original charges were filed in February 2023, after the then-28-year-old Paul got into a physical altercation with her ex-partner and co-parent, Dakota Mortensen.

According to court documents, Paul threw her phone, a wooden play set and heavy metal chairs at Mortensen. She also physically attacked him — kicking him and putting him in a physical chokehold.

One of the metal chairs struck her 5-year-old daughter, who was sitting on the couch.

The incident re-entered the pop culture conversation in March, when a video of it, filmed by Mortensen, was leaked to the celebrity news site TMZ. The fallout of the leak resulted in ABC canceling Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette.”

Earlier in the year, Salt Lake County prosecutors declined to file charges against Paul for several new reports of domestic violence filed by Mortensen.

Friday’s hearing is separate from the hearings Paul and Mortensen have been attending all year for dueling protective orders and custody/parent-time issues regarding their two-year-old son.

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