Woman helping Chris Watts' family raise money for attorney sues podcaster over alleged defamation

A woman who claimed to be working with Chris Watt’s family to help find an attorney to represent him in his murder case is now suing a podcaster who allegedly made defaming comments.

The woman is demanding $1 million for the alleged slanderous comments.

Lana Oriani recently filed the lawsuit without an attorney in an Ohio court against Jennifer Risch Youngblood. Youngblood is part of the “Jay is 4 Justice” Podcast, according to her LinkedIn page and the lawsuit. Youngblood could not be reached in time for this report.

Watts admitted to killing his pregnant wife and their two kids in 2018 and was sentenced to five life sentences for the killings. His case was high-profile and drew the interest of True Crime fanatics who closely followed the developments.

During the investigation, Watts gave media interviews pleading for the return of his wife and daughters. But he would later admit to murdering them.

According to Oriani’s lawsuit, obtained by FrontPageDetectives, she worked with the Watts family to help find an attorney to represent Chris. During that process, Oriani went on Youngblood’s podcast.

The two then agreed to travel to Denver together to meet with and work with that Watts family, according to the lawsuit. However, Orinai alleged Youngblood viewed the trip as a vacation and flaked on several agreements to meet with people or work on the efforts of the nonprofit to find and pay for a lawyer for Watts.

The nonprofit was run by Orinai and members of the Watts family that looked to use fundraising to help cover the attorney’s costs.

Oriani also claimed that Youngblood gave her word to the Watts family not to speak about the efforts or release footage that detailed their journey.

Oriani questioned Youngblood about the trip, and she apologized for some of the behaviors but also blamed others, according to the filing.

Youngblood agreed to promote on her podcasts and social media platforms the nonprofit that was being used to find Watts and attorney, according to the filing.

But the relationship between the two started to sour and they ended their partnership.

Later, Cindy Watts told Orinai that she “messed up” and Youngblood had probably recorded her and another person. Cindy Watts was fearful of what retaliation their family would experience if they stopped talking to Youngblood, the filing stated.

Then in March 2021, Youngblood started to make defamatory statements on her social media platforms about the nonprofit, according to the lawsuit. Youngblood urged people not to sign up to help the nonprofit and made false statements about Oriani’s intended business efforts.

The defemination included statements that the nonprofit was a fake and Oriani was running a scam website, according to the filing. Youngblood alleged that Oriani had scammed the Watts family out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the suit added.

The suit alleges the defemination continued, and Youngblood even created fake accounts to spread misinformation. She also used keywords in searches such as “Chris Watts” to drive traffic to her social media accounts and spread misinformation, according to the filing.

The lawsuit stated the alleged slanderous comments harmed Oriani and she asked for $1 million in the filing.