What happened to Karen Derrico? The TLC mom of 14 was ordered to wear an ankle monitor — and says her ex forged the evidence
Karen Derrico spent four years on TLC raising 14 children. Since June 2026 she has been fighting felony charges over emails her ex-husband says she sent, and her lawyer says he wrote them himself.
The case turns on a set of emails. Prosecutors say Karen Derrico sent them to her ex-husband. Her defense says Deon Derrico faked them.
Karen and Deon Derrico were the Las Vegas couple at the center of TLC's Doubling Down With the Derricos, which premiered in 2020 and followed them raising 14 children, including quintuplets, triplets and two sets of twins. They married in 2005. The divorce was filed on June 4, 2024, and a judge signed off two days later, with the two sharing custody of the minor children.
How it got here
According to an arrest report cited by KSNV, the former couple kept living together after the divorce and separated only after Deon began a new relationship. Karen wanted to reconcile; he wanted her to move out. Each side then sought a temporary protection order against the other. Karen's was dismissed, Deon filed his in April 2026, and their contact was limited to emails about the children.
Deon told police the threatening emails began in early May 2026. Court records allege that Karen claimed to have a gun and wrote that she would kill him, his new girlfriend or the children, and that she tried to stop him from appearing at a court hearing on or around May 2.
The charges
Karen was arrested at her home in North Las Vegas on June 17 and released from custody on June 21. At her arraignment on June 23 she pleaded not guilty. The criminal complaint, filed under the name Karen Evonne Carter, lists four counts.
- Aggravated stalking — a felony, tied to the alleged threats against Deon, his girlfriend and the children.
- Preventing or dissuading a witness — a felony, tied to the alleged attempt to keep Deon from testifying at the protection-order hearing.
- Harassment — a misdemeanor.
- Violating a protection order — a misdemeanor, for emailing about matters unrelated to parenting.
Read more: Al Pacino becomes a dad at 84; Jamie Foxx fires off a 'Drop-Off Line' quip
She was released on a $2,000 bond and ordered to wear an ankle monitor. Deon has said publicly that their children told him she had threatened to kill them, and that the trouble started when he told her he was no longer in love with her.
"The charges are total nonsense and fabricated by Mr. Derrico, the supposed victim," Karen's attorney, Jess Marchese, said in a statement to People.
The forgery defense
Court records reviewed by USA Today show Karen denies sending the messages and accuses Deon of getting into her accounts and forging the emails. Her defense asked the court to subpoena the IP addresses to trace where the messages came from. Marchese has said he is working with tech experts and told Oxygen his team has shown with about 90% certainty that the emails are forgeries.
The preliminary hearing set for August 6 did not go ahead. The defense requested a continuance, Karen did not appear, and the case was set for a status check on negotiations on August 25 before Judge Kalani Hoo. The court record does not say what is being negotiated.
None of the allegations has been tested in court, and Karen Derrico is presumed innocent.
No resolution had been reported publicly by early October 2026. For a family whose life was filmed for TLC for years, the chapter people are now following most closely is the one with no cameras in the room.
Earlier we wrote: Did Andrew Garfield gush over rumored girlfriend Monica Barbaro in 'Artificial'?