Shelley Lubben and Joe Valley Sued for Wrongful Death by the Munguia Family

Munguia v. Lubben is the kind of case that can net a multi-million dollar judgement in California.

Visalia, Calif. -- The family of cyclist Octavio Munguia, who was killed in a DUI hit-and-run collision with Shelley Lubben's car while her boyfriend Joe Valley was behind the wheel, has sued the couple for wrongful death in Tulare County Superior Court.

Shelley Lubben and Joe Valley on the road

A death on the highway

On November 7, 2017, Joe Valley left the home he shared with disgraced anti-porn crusader Shelley Lubben in a PT Cruiser she had purchased, and insured through USAA. Official reports and local sources say Valley was out running errands for Lubben, and was supposed to attend his court-ordered Domestic Violence class.

What he accomplished that day is not known, but what we do know is that he drank at a local bar, The Antlers Roadhouse, and witnesses state Valley was already intoxicated when he arrived in his car.

The Antlers

It was after he left that his car ran down Munguia on Balch Park Road south of Battle Mountain Road.

Valley told Highway Patrol investigators he had been drinking at a Lake Success earlier that day, but made no specific mention of visiting The Antlers (which stands near the lake's northeastern edge).

Following the fatal collision, Valley drove the 2005 PT Cruiser straight home to the property on Balch Park Road where he resided with Lubben. Shortly after his wrecked vehicle returned to the Lubben Ranch, Shelley Lubben got behind the wheel of her Jeep and drove off the property alone.

Lubben then flagged down a neighbor, and told the woman that she was her "witness" that Lubben was leaving home at that time, and then drove off.

This struck the neighbor as odd, and she told an investigator for the victim's family that Shelley Lubben was intoxicated and looked like she hadn't showered in days at the time she flagged her down.

Highway Patrol officers arrested Valley on Lubben's ranch property, and took him to jail. But because she had already left, they were unable to interview Lubben, who had driven to a friend's house.

It wasn't until the following morning that Highway Patrol got a statement from Shelley Lubben -- under circumstances that were objectively suspicious.

It turned out that one of Mrs. Lubben's iPhones was in the car that killed Octavio Munguia.

The presence of Lubben's cell phone in the vehicle was discovered after the wrecked PT Cruiser had been brought to Wallace Towing on Orange Belt Drive in Porterville.

It was there that Shelley Lubben was interviewed by the California Highway Patrol, when she came to retrieve her iPhone on November 8.

On October 12, 2018, Joe Valley was sentenced to 11 years in a California state prison for Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated and Leaving the Scene of an Accident in the criminal case of the DUI hit-and-run killing of Mr. Munguia.

The following screenshots come from the Tulare County Superior Court website.

The following file copy of the Summons and Complaint is dated February 2018, so perhaps the family re-filed in September.

It asserts (accurately) that Shelley Lubben entrusted her vehicle to Valley. In this instance, Valley was running errands for Lubben. He also had a history of driving while intoxicated, of which Lubben was well aware.

The Munguias' suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

USAA is representing the indigent, incarcerated Valley.

Joe Valley in his November 2017 mugshot

Court Records Expose Shelley Lubben's Trail of Bad Debts

Springville, Calif. -- A pair of filings in Tulare County courts detail a trail of bad debts left by disgraced anti-porn crusader Shelley Lubben.

When Shelley's  husband, Garrett, divorced her after she cheated on him with a ranch hand named Joe Valley, she received a large number of assets, including full title to a Balch Park Road property (a.k.a. The Lubben Ranch) in her divorce settlement, which was concluded in July 2016.

Readers will recall that Mrs. Lubben's Balch Park home burned to the ground in a drug lab fire in March 2018.

Valley is currently serving a state prison term for the DUI hit-and-run killing of a cyclist a short distance from the Lubben Ranch. A neighbor reported that Lubben was drunk when she drove from her home shortly after the crash, leaving Valley alone on the ranch to greet the California Highway Patrol.

The question of who exactly owns the Balch Park Road property is a murky one, to which we will return at another time. Lubben apparently sold all or most of it to a man named Sirjoe Carmona, but has received insurance money after the fire, which would indicate that she retained an insurable interest.

According to documents on file in Tulare County, Lubben received $100,000 from Carmona in June 2017, plus a $200,000 promissory note, to be paid off at the rate of $1,000 per month.

Shelley also received a large number of assets in her divorce settlement, which was concluded in July 2016.

And in April 2018, Lubben received a $144,000 property and casualty insurance payment for the destruction of her home and personal possessions in the drug lab fire.

Yet somehow Shelley Lubben didn't feel the need to pay her credit debt.

In February 2017, Discover Bank sued Shelley in Porterville for $8984.35 in unpaid charges to her Discover Card.

The bank won via default judgment in November of that year.

The default judgement paperwork:

A second collections lawsuit, filed in Visalia by Midland Funding in March 2018, was also lost by Shelley via a default judgment.

Midland Funding is one of the nation's biggest buyers of unpaid debt, so it's unknown at this point where the debt originated. 

This time, the damage was $10,169.70

The Request for Entry of Default (notice the date is one month after Shelley received $144,000 in insurance money):

Shelley also left Chase Bank holding the bag for $2,453.54, and failed to pay Macy's $8,902.37.

That's $30,509.96 in bad debts -- and there were others for which figures are not available

Let's all hear it for this fine Christian woman who wants to tell all of us how to live.

UPDATE: On January 14, 2019, Department Stores National Bank also filed a collections action against Shelley Lubben in Tulare County Superior Court. The amount of debt in that case is not yet known.

Shelley Lubben lover Joe Valley gets 11-year Sentence in fatal DUI Hit-and-Run case

Porterville, Calif -- Joe Valley arrived at Tulare County Superior Court Friday morning, October 12, 2018, to learn his fate in the case of the DUI hit-and-run killing of cyclist Octavio Munguia.

Joseph Michael Valley, the boyfriend of disgraced anti-porn crusader Shelley Lubben, was given a state prison sentence of 11 years for Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated and Leaving the Scene of an Accident.

Joe Valley

Shelley Lubben, who stormed out of Valley's Sept 28 court hearing as soon as her "toxic relationship" with him -- which had been marked by substance abuse and domestic violence -- was raised, did not bother to attend her lover's sentencing, Friday.

Eyewitnesses confirm that after leaving the courthouse on Sept 28, where Valley stood condemned due to a devastating death caused by drinking, Shelley Lubben, her local gal pal, and their friend Taz Graves retired to The Antlers Roadhouse for drinks.

The Antlers being the same spot where Joe Valley drank before his car plowed into Mr. Munguia an the way home to the house he shared with Lubben.

Valley's mother did attend court today -- as well as other individuals believed to be Joe Valley's family members who cursed at Munguia's family in the courthouse parking lot after the hearing.

“Whenever a life is lost to the selfish choices of a drunk driver, the community as a whole feels both anger and fear that they could become the next innocent victim on their way to work, school, or while enjoying a quiet bike ride,” said Assistant District Attorney David Alavezos. “The sentence handed down by the court will not bring back the life lost, and the defendant will continue his own existence, but for now that existence will be behind prison walls.”

Case closed

Valley recently changed his plea from Not Guilty in the hit-and-run drunk driving death of Mr. Munguia, to a plea of No Contest. His new plea accepted by the court, he stood convicted of Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated and Leaving the Scene of an Accident, but awaiting sentence.

At the time Valley's new plea was accepted,  Judge Michael B. Sheltzer indicated that a nine-year prison sentence would be in order, subject to modification by the presence of any mitigating or aggravating factors in the case.

Judge Sheltzer is the same judge who dismissed Shelley Lubben's trumped up charges against her ex-husband, Garrett, in February 2017.

Valley's Sept 28 court appearance had been slated as a sentencing hearing, so the family of the victim were in attendance with written Impact Statements to be read into the record. However, Joe Valley's Public Defender asked the court if Valley could read a short statement first, and the judge permitted it.

Looking pale but composed, Valley apologized for his actions, and claimed that the day he ran down Mr. Munguia was a "blur" to him. 

Valley's apology was not accepted by the members of Munguia's family, including his wife of 30 years and his younger brother. Their heartbreaking statements moved many in the courtroom to tears, but it was something the victim's brother said that generated a most unusual reaction in the room.

Addressing Valley directly, the moment the victim's brother mentioned Valley's "toxic relationship" with Shelley Lubben which had been marked by substance abuse and domestic violence, Lubben stood up and dragged her two companions out of the courtroom, never to return.

Having ostensibly come to learn her boyfriend's fate, Lubben instead fled when her name came up in a negative light -- without learning Valley's fate.

Aggravating factors

Following the family's statements on Sept 28, which were added into the court record, Judge Sheltzer announced that he would need time to consider the fact that there had been no mitigating factors in the case but several aggravating ones: Valley was on probation at the time of the crash; his probation performance "had been unsatisfactory"; and Valley had failed to stop and render aid to Mr. Munguia or even call 911 to seek help for the man who lay dying on the side of the road because of him.

Judge Sheltzer re-scheduled sentencing in the case for 8:30 am on Oct. 12, and assured the victim's family that under no circumstances would the sentence be any less than nine years, but possibly more after his research on sentencing in similar cases had been completed.

Today we learned that a prison sentence of 11 years was more appropriate for the crime.

On May 18, 2018, Shelley Lubben (seen here with Joe Valley in 2016) turned 50 years old. Hers was one of the most turbulent and corrosive half-centuries in the life of any modern-day public figure.

Questions still remain

Joe Valley's No Contest plea obviated the need for a criminal trial, and with no testimony to be heard by the court, we may never know the full story of exactly what happened on Nov. 7, 2017.

What we do know is that Joe Valley drank at a local bar, The Antlers Roadhouse, some time before the fatal collision with Mr. Munguia, and that witnesses state Valley was already intoxicated when he arrived in his car. It was after he left that his car ran down Munguia.

A blood draw revealed Valley’s blood alcohol content at .26 percent, the District Attorney’s Office said. That was more than three times the legal limit of .08 percent.

But Valley told Highway Patrol investigators he had been drinking at a nearby lake earlier that day, and made no mention of visiting The Antlers.

Could there be anything else Valley left out?

Following the fatal collision, Valley's 2005 PT Cruiser was driven straight home to the property on Balch Park Road where he resided with Lubben. Shortly after his wrecked vehicle returned to the Lubben Ranch, Shelley Lubben got behind the wheel of her Jeep and drove off the property alone.

Lubben then flagged down a neighbor, and told the woman that she was her "witness" that Lubben was leaving home at that time, and then drove off.

This struck the neighbor as odd, and she told an investigator for the victim's family that Shelley Lubben was intoxicated and looked like she hadn't showered in days at the time she flagged her down.

A United Parcel Service driver discovered Mr. Muguia in the road. After witnesses reported seeing a PT Cruiser with a broken windshield and significant front end damage, the UPS driver directed law enforcement to a nearby house where a PT Cruiser was normally parked: the Lubben Ranch.

Highway Patrol officers arrested Valley on the ranch property, and took him to jail. But because Lubben had already left, they were initially unable to interview her.

It wasn't until the following morning that Highway Patrol got a statement from Shelley Lubben -- under circumstances that were objectively suspicious.

It turned out that Mrs. Lubben's iPhone was in the car that killed Octavio Munguia. 

The presence of Lubben's cell phone in the vehicle was discovered after the wrecked PT Cruiser had been brought to Wallace Towing on Orange Belt Drive in Porterville.

It was there that Shelley Lubben was interviewed by the California Highway Patrol, when she came to retrieve her iPhone on November 8.

If Shelley Lubben -- who a witness stated was intoxicated at the time of Mr. Munguia's death -- hadn't been in the vehicle, then what was her cell phone doing in the car that killed Mr. Munguia?

Now that Joe Valley has been convicted and sentenced to prison for Gross Vehicular Manslaughter, we may never know the answer.

UPDATE: Joseph Michael Valley was transferred to Avenal State Prison on October 23, 2018. He is not eligible for parole until May 2023.

Shelley Lubben Now Resides in Springville, Calif. 'Tweaker House'

SPRINGVILLE, Calif -- In a development that would be stunning if it related to anyone but Shelley Lubben, the disgraced anti-porn crusader now resides at a local Springville dope house outside of which a man died in a street fight in August.

Shelley Lubben's own home burned to the ground in a drug lab explosion on March 16, 2018.

Multiple sources confirm that Shelley Lubben moved into the two-story house on Highway 190, across the street from the Cowpuncher’s Cafe, in September. 

Cowpuncher's Cafe in Springville, Calif

The house is where Lubben's local gal pal resides.

Hit the road

After her home was destroyed in a drug lab fire, Shelley first moved into the home of a woman from a local church, and after being kicked out of that residence she relocated to a mobile home park in June.  In September she was asked to leave the mobile home park, too.

The reason for both moves was reportedly her drunken, outrageous behavior.

It was at the house on Highway 190 that Lubben was served with a restraining order by her ex-husband on October 7. A court date of Oct 16 has been set in that matter.

As one source told me, "It is a green two-story house across the street from the Cafe. It has always been a known tweaker house, apparently Section 8 housing. As long as I can remember tweakers have lived there."

The property is a single family home built in 1913 on a 8,898 sq ft lot. It was last sold for $197,000 in May 2005.

"It’s a known Section 8 tweaker house. People are in and out of there allllll day long," the source said.

Another source reported,

"There has been a lot of drama with [Lubben's female friend]. Two guys got into a fight over her right in front of Cowpuncher’s over a month ago and one hit his head on the ground and died. His name was Sean Campbell."

A man named David Alan Baker punched him, "and he hit the concrete and went kuplurk," a source reported. 

Shelley hadn’t yet moved in there. At the time of her boyfriend Joe Valley’s court hearing on Sept. 14, Shelley was still moving her stuff in.

Shelley claims it's only temporary -- because she's having her trailer winterized!


Yes, her trailer.

So, David Baker hit a guy which ended up killing him, and then a few weeks after that he got stabbed by somebody at Gifford’s market. He is now in court-ordered treatment. 

David Baker was charged with felony Burglary and Robbery in April 2017, and pleaded 'No Contest' to felony charges of Domestic Violence, as well as misdemeanor narcotic use in December of that year.

Baker has a lengthy criminal history and has been a felon since at least 2004. He is now facing other charges and has a court date set for October 23, 2018 in Porterville.

Shelley Lubben's boyfriend Joe Valley is due back in a Porterville court October 12 for sentencing in the hit-and-run DUI killing of cyclist Octavio Munguia in 2017, while on the way to Shelley Lubben's ranch home.

Shelley Lubben's iPhone was found in the vehicle that killed Munguia.

Joe Valley Pleads No Contest But Questions Remain About Shelley Lubben's Involvement in Fatal DUI Crash

Porterville, Calif -- Joe Valley was brought into Tulare County Superior Court Friday morning, Sept. 28, 2018, with a white short-sleeved v-neck shirt over his county jail orange top, and his hands shackled to a chain around his waist. He grinned slightly at the sight of his mother who was seated in the courtroom, but did not immediately react to the presence of his girlfriend, anti-porn crusader Shelley Lubben.

Joe Valley

Lubben, who had missed Valley's last court date, was seated in the back row of the Department 17 courtroom, alongside her local gal pal, and a shaven-headed stocky male mutual friend known as Taz Graves who had arrived at the courthouse after the two women. The bloated Mrs. Lubben, her hair white and wearing glasses, looked at least a decade older than the photographs she publishes online.

Valley had recently changed his plea from Not Guilty in the hit-and-run drunk driving death of cyclist Octavio Munguia, to a plea of No Contest. His new plea accepted by the court, he now stood convicted of Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated and Leaving the Scene of an Accident. 

At the time Valley's new plea was accepted,  Judge Michael B. Sheltzer indicated that a nine-year prison sentence would be in order, subject to modification by the presence of any mitigating or aggravating factors in the case.

Judge Sheltzer is the same judge who dismissed Shelley Lubben's trumped up charges against her ex-husband, Garrett, in February 2017.

Friday's court appearance had been slated as a sentencing hearing, so the family of the victim were in attendance with written Impact Statements to be read into the record. However, Joe Valley's Public Defender asked the court if Valley could read a short statement first, and the judge permitted it.

Looking pale but composed, Valley apologized for his actions, and claimed that the day he ran down Mr. Munguia was a "blur" to him. 

Valley's apology was not accepted by the members of Munguia's family, including his wife of 30 years and his younger brother. Their heartbreaking statements moved many in the courtroom to tears, but it was something the victim's brother said that generated an unusual reaction in the room.

Addressing Valley directly, the moment the victim's brother mentioned Valley's "toxic relationship" with Shelley Lubben which had been marked by substance abuse and domestic violence, Lubben stood up and dragged her two companions out of the courtroom, never to return.

Having ostensibly come to learn her boyfriend's fate, Lubben instead fled when her name came up in a negative light -- without learning Valley's sentence!

Aggravating factors

Following the family's statements, which were added into the court record, Judge Sheltzer announced that he would need time to consider the fact that there had been no mitigating factors in the case but several aggravating ones: Valley was on probation at the time of the crash; his probation performance "had been unsatisfactory"; and Valley had failed to stop and render aid to Mr. Munguia or even call 911 to seek help for the man who lay dying on the side of the road because of him.

Judge Sheltzer re-scheduled sentencing in the case for 8:30 am on Oct. 12, and assured the victim's family that under no circumstances would the sentence be any less than nine years, but possibly more after his research on sentencing in similar cases had been completed.

On May 18, 2018, Shelley Lubben (seen here with Joe Valley in 2016) turned 50 years old. Hers was one of the most turbulent and dare I say corrosive half-centuries in the life of any modern-day public figure.

Questions still remain

Joe Valley's No Contest plea obviated the need for a criminal trial, and with no testimony to be heard by the court, we may never know the full story of exactly what happened on Nov. 7, 2017.

What we do know is that Joe Valley drank at a local bar, The Antlers Roadhouse, some time before the fatal collision with Mr. Munguia, and that witnesses state Valley was already intoxicated when he arrived in his car. It was after he left that his car ran down Munguia.

A blood draw revealed Valley’s blood alcohol content at .26 percent, the District Attorney’s Office said. That was more than three times the legal limit of .08 percent.

But Valley told Highway Patrol investigators he had been drinking at a nearby lake earlier that day, and made no mention of visiting The Antlers.

Could there be anything else Valley left out?

Following the fatal collision, Valley's 2005 PT Cruiser was driven straight home to the property on Balch Park Road where he resided with Lubben. Shortly after his wrecked vehicle returned to the Lubben Ranch, Shelley Lubben got behind the wheel of her Jeep and drove off the property alone.

Lubben then flagged down a neighbor, and told the woman that she was her "witness" that Lubben was leaving home at that time, and then drove off.

This struck the neighbor as odd, and she told an investigator for the victim's family that Shelley Lubben was intoxicated and looked like she hadn't showered in days at the time she flagged her down.

A United Parcel Service driver discovered Mr. Muguia in the road. After witnesses reported seeing a PT Cruiser with a broken windshield and significant front end damage, the UPS driver directed law enforcement to a nearby house where a PT Cruiser was normally parked: the Lubben Ranch.

Highway Patrol officers arrested Valley on Lubben's ranch property, and took him to jail. But because Lubben had already left, they were initially unable to interview her.

It wasn't until the following morning that Highway Patrol got a statement from Shelley Lubben -- under circumstances that were objectively suspicious.

It turned out that Mrs. Lubben's iPhone was in the car that killed Octavio Munguia. 

The presence of Lubben's cell phone in the vehicle was discovered after the wrecked PT Cruiser had been brought to Wallace Towing on Orange Belt Drive in Porterville.

It was there that Shelley Lubben was interviewed by the California Highway Patrol, when she came to retrieve her iPhone on November 8.

If Shelley Lubben -- who a witness stated was intoxicated at the time of Mr. Munguia's death -- hadn't been in the vehicle, then what was her cell phone doing in the car that killed Mr. Munguia?

Now that Joe Valley has pleaded No Contest to Gross Vehicular Manslaughter, we may never know the answer.

UPDATE: Eyewitnesses confirm that after leaving the courthouse, where Joe Valley stood condemned due due to a devastating death caused by drinking, Shelley Lubben and her friends retired to The Antlers for cocktails.

Disgraced anti-porn crusader Shelley Lubben has fallen to the bottom, and she's working her way down

Failed fundraiser is latest defeat for the deceitful, newly-homeless 'Rebel Prophet'

Springville, Calif. -- At approximately 5:00 a.m. on Friday, March 16, 2018, an explosion and fireball ripped through the ranch home of Shelley Lubben, leaving its residential structures leveled and engulfed in flames.

Lubben, 49, who has resided at the so-called "Lubben Ranch" at 45117 Balch Park Road near Highway 190 since 2015, was home at the time, but escaped without serious injury.

The blast came from the side of the 6-bedroom structure that had blacked-out windows. Two residents, a man and infant son, were airlifted to a local hospital for treatment of severe burn injuries. The man's pregnant wife was listed as in "fair condition".

The Tulare County Sheriff's Office stated that due to "the suspicious nature of the fire", detectives from the Marijuana Investigation Team were dispatched to the scene. Two butane canisters were discovered, and authorities now say the cause of the fire, still officially under investigation by the Tulare Area Gang and Narcotics Enforcement Team (TAGNET), is a drug lab explosion.

Up in flames

Caring

On Facebook, Lubben and one of her followers came up with the idea of a creating a means for supporters to send Lubben cash.

No fundraiser was considered to help the charred infant, for whom Shelley said she was "praying".

About four days ago, over the weekend of March 24-25, the fundraiser went live.

As it turns out, after losing her shofar and her liquor collection in a drug lab explosion, not very many people wanted to help the scandal-plagued Lubben after all. 

Several days in, the campaign remained stalled at a mere $330.

Compare this to the fundraiser, launched on the very same web platform, for the family of beloved adult performer and cameraman Barry Wood:

Then on Wednesday, March 28, the embarrassing failed fundraiser was removed suddenly.

It appears that Shelley had it right when she texted her ex-husband Garrett (after cheating on him with ranch worker Joe Valley and losing her family):

Rebel Pauper

The latest twist of fate in the tumultuous life of Shelley Lubben has left many contemplating how she could have fallen so far.

One YouTube commenter suggested the following explanation:

It would appear that more and more people now see through Shelley Lubben, and that the last remnants of her tattered reputation also went up in smoke on Balch Park Road.