Taylor Frankie, who was recently removed from The Bachelorette, might face criminal charges. A district attorney is reviewing an incident from February to determine if she committed domestic violence.
Draper Police Chief Rich Ferguson has forwarded a case to Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill for review.
According to Chief Ferguson, the decision of whether to press charges against Paul, 27, now rests with the Salt Lake County District Attorney, as he told TMZ on Thursday.
The Daily Mail contacted the Draper Police Department and Paul for a statement, but they haven’t responded yet.
Dakota Mortensen, Paul’s former partner, has requested a restraining order in Utah. This request follows an alleged domestic violence incident from February 2026 and is now a key factor in the decision of whether or not to press charges against Paul.
Mortensen claimed the reality star attacked him by choking, hitting, and pushing him into a window.
Even if the Salt Lake County District Attorney doesn’t press charges against her, the situation isn’t over. According to Chief Ferguson, the city prosecutor could still decide to pursue the case.
Paul is in a difficult position because she’s still on probation. This stems from an August 2023 incident where she accepted a plea deal for aggravated assault, meaning she pleaded guilty but the charges could be dropped if she met certain conditions.
As part of the agreement, four other charges against her were dismissed permanently, so they cannot be brought up again.
A representative for Viggo Mortensen stated that his top priority is the well-being of his son, Ever.
Okay, so apparently Viggo knew this whole thing about the alleged incident could surface, but he absolutely refused to bring it up himself. Why? Because he genuinely wants to have a good relationship with Taylor, that’s why! It’s just…he’s always wanted things to be okay with her, and he wasn’t going to risk that by saying anything. It’s so frustrating, but also…it shows how much he cares, you know?
‘It’s been really hard to achieve that, but he wants to co-parent well.’
The documents show the fight in February happened at their house while their two-year-old son, Ever, was there.
According to Mortensen, a disagreement with Paul turned violent, and Paul reportedly choked him.
He says she began choking him, so he pulled her hands away. Then, she pushed him into a window and hit him.
According to TMZ, Mortensen described the scene as ‘chaotic’ and ‘frightening,’ explaining that their son was woken up by Paul’s screaming and yelling.
The petition also mentioned Paul’s earlier arrest in 2023, when he alleged that Mortensen threw chairs at him during an assault.
In his court documents, he’s asked for temporary custody of Ever and requested that Paul not be allowed to drink alcohol or use drugs when Ever is in his care.
Paul may face legal consequences related to a reported domestic violence incident last month, and details surrounding her arrest in 2023 are becoming more apparent.
Newly released police body camera footage, obtained by TMZ, shows previously unseen moments from the night of the arrest. The footage depicts the woman arguing with an officer while appearing to be intoxicated.
During a particularly emotional moment, the reality star broke down and called her father for assistance while the officer, who was visibly frustrated, attempted to question her. She also seemed to mock him by asking what his job entailed.
The video was filmed just before Paul was arrested, following her confession to throwing metal chairs at her boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Paul and Mortensen to request comment.
From the beginning of this new video segment, Paul appears visibly upset. The scene opens with a heated interview taking place – Paul is outside on the porch, and Mortensen is inside the house.
Honestly, it was unsettling. She kept repeating how it was her house, but she was really confused about why he was inside and I was out. She slurred her words as she demanded we switch places – that I go inside and he come out. It was just… strange and worrying to see her like that.
The officer, whose voice stays calm, offers to do just that ‘in a minute.’
He trailed off, saying he’d hoped a bit of fresh, cold air would feel good. He was still talking when Paul turned and opened the front door.
She marched into the house, where Mortensen was speaking to another officer, and interrupted them.
‘You’re upset, I’m upset. Get out of my house,’ she tells Mortensen wearily.
He mumbled something to her that wasn’t clear on the bodycam recording, and Paul seemed to repeat it back to him.
She told him, “Get out of my house!” as she and Mortensen approached each other near the kitchen.
The interviewing officer seemed annoyed by the break in questioning, but Paul didn’t pay attention and helped himself to a glass of water.
‘Hey, Taylor, when I told you how this was going down, OK, we’re trying to be kind right now and just find out what’s going on, but if you stop listening to the things we’re saying —’ he says as Paul whips out her cell phone and begins dialing.
She said to the officer, seemingly dismissing his concerns, ‘You’re fine, I understand you’re trying to be helpful.’ She then looked down at her phone, as if searching for a contact number.
According to Paul, the man pushed her into the garage, near her child’s belongings, as the officer attempted to talk to her.
‘Your children are here, and you need to stop yelling,’ he instructs her in a more forceful tone.
She agreed distractedly, saying, ‘Yes, that makes sense,’ before holding the phone to her ear and starting to dial.
He explained that when he asked Paul not to make a call at that moment, Paul went ahead and did it anyway. Paul then wondered if that was against the law, but the man assured him it wasn’t.
Paul suddenly becomes tearful as she says on the phone, ‘Dad, please come to my house.
‘Dakota pushed me in my garage, and the police are saying that I can’t talk about it,’ she gasps.
The officer reassured her, ‘That’s not what we meant,’ and asked her to breathe deeply, explaining that she seemed very drunk.
He urges her again to keep her voice down because her children are trying to sleep.
She asked, ‘Upstairs? With the white noise machine?’ and gestured upwards. The officer gently reminded her that one of her children was actually sleeping on the couch right there in the room.
After he asks her to ‘chill,’ she interrupts to ask, ‘Are you married, with kids?’
“That doesn’t matter,” he said, but Paul disagreed, explaining that the information helps understand what she’s feeling right now.
Honestly, he didn’t really want to talk about himself, and I totally get why. He made it clear his priority was me – helping me get through whatever I was feeling. He just wanted to help me calm down, and that’s all that mattered at the moment.
He began to explain that he was prepared to assist, but she cut him off to request a glass of water.
‘You can have water,’ the officer replies, but Paul asks again, ‘Am I OK to get that.’
‘I said you are,’ he reiterates coldly before she smacks a plastic glass against the countertop.
As she gets a glass of water from the fridge, she starts thinking again about what he said about her being drunk.
She insisted she was barely drunk, saying she was only a ‘two out of ten.’ Then, with a touch of sarcasm, she asked someone to explain how that could be considered intoxicated.
She playfully challenged him to question her, and then jokingly suggested he use his breathalyzer – though she mispronounced it as ‘blezaryzer’ before quickly correcting herself.
She adds that she got a ‘safe driver’ to take her home that evening from her ‘girls’ night.’
Paul warns the woman her father is about to arrive and will see what’s happening. The officer doesn’t mind, but she responds by saying he clearly lacks compassion.
‘He just pushed me in the garage,’ she says of Mortensen as she begins to tear up again.
The officer attempted to reassure her that he was just there to help her relax and that they needed to wait until the other officer finished speaking with Mortensen before he could talk to her.
Paul accuses him of being on ‘his side’ through her sobs.
He attempted to explain, but she cut him off, claiming her hand hurt. Despite this, she refused when the officer offered to call paramedics to examine it.
‘Yelling, is that a crime?’ she asks him, and he clarifies that it’s not illegal.
“I’m in so much pain!” Paul wailed, her sobs growing louder as she covered her face. When the officer offered to connect her with someone to talk to, like a crisis counselor, she simply said, “No, I just want him to go home.”
Paul then approached the sofa and seemed to apologize to her child, who was asleep and whose face is obscured in the police video.
She simply said she wanted to say goodnight and go to sleep, then asked if that was alright – if it was something wrong to want.
The officer explained she needed to wait while they interviewed Mortensen first. Meanwhile, Paul, now calm, asked if he could use the restroom.
The officer questioned if she needed to do it immediately. She replied it would only take ‘two seconds,’ then shut the bathroom door, ending the video.
Earlier videos showed Paul becoming very angry after her boyfriend wouldn’t drive her to a concert because she had been drinking too much.
I was shocked to hear about what happened. Apparently, this mother, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had a really intense argument with her boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen. It escalated so quickly that she started throwing chairs, and tragically, her five-year-old daughter, Indy, was accidentally hit by one. It’s just awful and I feel terrible for Indy and everyone involved.
According to video footage, the influencer told police she was frightened during the incident in a Salt Lake City suburb, and had accidentally wet herself.
Paul was arrested on February 17 at her home in Herriman, Utah, on misdemeanor charges.
After Mortensen showed police a video of the chair hitting the victim, the charges were increased to include aggravated assault, endangering a child, and domestic violence committed in front of a child.
Two weeks after the incident, the Salt Lake County District Attorney filed charges against Paul. These included two felony counts of domestic violence committed in front of a child resulting in injury, one misdemeanor charge of child abuse with injury, and a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief.
If found guilty, she could face up to five years in prison for each of the three felony charges. Her next court date is April 14th.
Paul became well-known on TikTok, gaining over 4 million followers by posting about her everyday experiences, including her two children and recent separation from her husband.
Last summer, she surprised her followers by announcing her divorce from Tate, explaining it stemmed from a boundary she crossed during a casual exploration of swinging.
Soft swinging involves couples swapping partners but not engaging in full sex.
After splitting with Tate — the father of her children — she started hooking up with Mortensen.
Police bodycam footage shows Herriman officers Ben Rugebregt and Alex Felsing approaching Paul’s home after a neighbor called 911.
Both Paul and Mortensen, her boyfriend of six months, are seen answering the door.
When the officers ask them what was going on, Dakota tells them Taylor was ‘hammered.’
Taylor replied, confirming the same thing. She then told the police that Dakota had pushed her into the garage.
Okay, so things really escalated. Officers Rugebregt and Felsing had to step in and separate the couple, bringing Paul outside to de-escalate the situation. Honestly, it was heartbreaking – she was visibly upset, crying, and having trouble speaking clearly while the police tried to communicate with her.
‘I’m emotionally hurting and going through a divorce,’ she tells them.
But seconds later she turns belligerent and says: ‘I don’t give a f*** anymore.
‘I don’t give a f*** about him,’ she says, referring to Mortensen. ‘I just want him out.
Honestly, things escalated quickly. It started with me reacting – I pushed him and even hit him, and then he retaliated. But I wasn’t thinking straight after he pushed me. I completely lost it, just completely snapped. All I know is, I need him gone from my life. I just want him out.
She explained that after picking her up from a night out with her friends, her boyfriend verbally attacked her during the entire ride home.
Taylor told police she threw objects at Dakota out of fear, explaining that he had pushed her beforehand.
She also told police she wet her pants because she was scared.
In a video statement to police, 30-year-old Mortensen said he picked up Taylor after her night out with friends, and that she was intoxicated.
He said they had an agreement to stay away from alcohol as he’s a recovering addict.
He informed the police that Paul is dealing with difficult personal problems, and drinking alcohol makes the situation much worse.
He had plans to go to a concert with a friend, but then Paul learned about it and asked if she could join them, requesting a ride from the party.
Mortensen said they were supposed to pick up Paul’s ID before heading to the concert, but when he got to her place, it was clear she wasn’t able to go.
He said she then became angry and began to berate him on the drive back.
When they returned to her house, the family member who was babysitting Indy and Paul’s son, Ocean, left.
Mortensen explained that he attempted to leave for the next hour and a half to calm things down, but Paul blocked him from leaving.
He claimed she threw her phone at him. She then grabbed his truck keys, climbed onto the vehicle, and repeatedly slammed the doors.
She threw a wooden playset, hitting his truck. She then violently threw metal chairs, damaging the walls.
Sergeant Rugebregt reported seeing several metal chairs and other things from around the house scattered on the floor near the front door. He believes the chairs may have been from a kitchen island.
‘I observed a case of roses on the ground by the kitchen island,’ he added.
Mortensen said all of this violence took place in front of Indy. Ocean was upstairs asleep.
I heard him tell the police he genuinely feared for his life as the chairs started flying. He said one actually bounced off his shoulder and, tragically, hit Indy right in the head. It was awful to listen to him describe what happened.
He admitted pushing Paul out of his way, because she wouldn’t let him leave.
‘She fell down because she was hammered,’ he said.
The cops clearly did not realize that Paul was an internet celebrity.
After Mortensen inquired about the potential release of her mugshot, an officer was overheard saying it wasn’t likely to receive any media attention.
When police arrived to arrest Paul for domestic violence, his partner asked the officer, confused, ‘So he’s not getting arrested? He was the one who pushed me, but I’m the one being arrested?’
Even after being handcuffed, she kept asking the officer what she had done wrong.
She worried that Dakota wouldn’t accept her arrest, and exclaimed in disbelief, “I wet myself and now I’m being arrested?”
During the arrest, Paul’s parents, Jeremy and Liann May, arrived to take the kids.
While being handcuffed, Paul told her mother: ‘I’m being arrested for pushing Dakota.’
Liann replied, ‘Yeah, that’s domestic violence.’
Even as officers were putting her in the patrol car, Paul continued to protest her arrest, telling the officer that the man had also hit her, and that she was a woman.
Before the police took her away, Paul’s mother spoke to her through the car window, clearly upset. She told her, ‘You shouldn’t have let my grandchildren witness this, and I can’t believe you’re acting this way.’
After a break from social media following her arrest, Paul shared on TikTok that she’s been managing her depression and anxiety with Zoloft and is also attending therapy to process past trauma.
She recently visited Mortensen’s family in Logan, Utah, and shared how much she cares for them. She’s decided to keep her children off TikTok for the time being, though she doesn’t plan to do so permanently. She didn’t discuss her ongoing legal issues.
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2026-03-27 06:08