Credit: DISNEY/John Fleenor
Season 21 of The Bachelorette has ended, but it seems that much of the drama was waiting on the back end. Jenn Tran led this past season and gave her final rose to Devin Strader. However, their romance didn’t last, and their engagement was quickly called off. Now, his past abusive acts toward an ex-girlfriend are coming to light, and it’s calling the network’s background checks into question.
Devin recently took to social media to share his side of the story about why he and Jenn broke things off. However, his leaking of text messages with Jenn did little to win any favor from most fans.
Now, The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Devin had quite a few skeletons in his closet that were able to slip through the cracks of the network’s background checks. In fact, the news is pretty damning, as not only was he arrested, but he also had a restraining order filed against him.
RealitySteve first published the affidavit, which includes Devin’s arrest warrant for simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling of his ex. This happens to be a felony.
Devin was arrested because he reportedly burglarized his ex-girlfriend’s Louisiana home. She also had a restraining order against Devin. This all happened in 2017, seven years before he was picked to be on the show, and it was sealed, which means it didn’t come up in his background check.
Apparently, his ex-girlfriend had been out of town. When she came home, she found many of her possessions broken and thrown all over the floor. She also noticed that Devin had taken the expensive necklace he had given her as a gift. The scary part is that Devin was neighbors with his ex-girlfriend at the time.
She also accused him of coming to her home multiple times and “banging on the door several times and screaming at her.” This was why she filed the restraining order against him. The woman also says Devin “made a fire out in the street with what appeared to be the actual restraining order.”
Additionally, she “had a tire flattened in her vehicle, and when it was getting changed, [Strader] came outside and began laughing at her.” The woman also says Devin “put me in a chokehold covering my mouth.” He also “spit on me and threw his drink on me at [a] Pelicans game in front of everyone in the stands.” She then says that Devin almost “killed” her and refused to talk about it afterward.
According to the unsealed documents, Devin’s ex was also a victim of mental abuse. She said, “He has degraded me and taken everything from me. My self-confidence, self-esteem, and I hope no other girl ever has to go through what I went through.”
After his arrest, he pleaded guilty to criminal trespass and simple criminal damage to property of less than $500. He had one year of unsupervised probation. The affidavit in his arrest was public during Devin’s background check, but the restraining order wasn’t public.
So far, Devin has not responded to the news, and his last Instagram post was on August 29. He has limited comments on the post.