Police have charged a person who allegedly despatched a number of threats and sexually specific messages to WNBA star Caitlin Clark over social media with stalking.
The person, 55-year-old Michael Lewis from Texas, was arrested on Sunday at a lodge in Indianapolis, the town the place Clark’s workforce Indiana Fever is predicated.
Regulation enforcement officers recognized messages despatched to Clark from Mr Lewis on X that allegedly contained threatening and sexually specific messages, police stated.
Mr Lewis is scheduled to look in courtroom on Tuesday morning and, if convicted, might withstand six years in jail and a $10,000 (£ 8,211) fantastic.
In accordance with courtroom paperwork, one of many messages allegedly despatched to Clark learn: “@CaitlinClark22 been driving round your own home 3x a day..however do not name the legislation simply but, the publc is allowed to drive by gainbridge..aka Caitlin’s Fieldhouse.”
“I am getting tickets. I am sitting behind the bench,” one other message learn.
Messages have been despatched between 16 December and a couple of January, based on courtroom paperwork.
Clark, the 2024 Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation rookie of the yr, had reported the messages to police and stated she feared for her security.
In accordance with sports activities community ESPN, the 22-year-old athlete made police conscious of the them earlier than Mr Lewis arrived in Indianapolis. She had taken to altering her look in public resulting from security issues.
The social media posts “triggered Caitlin Clark to really feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened”, prosecutors stated in courtroom paperwork.
Mr Lewis was discovered by FBI after they tracked the IP addresses of the messages to a lodge in downtown Indianapolis, Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears stated.
The person advised police his messages have been “an creativeness, fantasy kind factor and it is a joke, and it is nothing to do with threatening”, based on courtroom paperwork.
In a press launch on Monday, Mr Mears stated “it takes plenty of braveness for ladies to come back ahead in these instances, which is why many do not”.
“In doing so, the sufferer is setting an instance for all ladies who should reside and work in Indy with out the specter of sexual violence.”
The incident occurred simply weeks after a person from Oregon was arrested and charged with stalking and harassment of ladies’s faculty basketball star Paige Bueckers.
#man #charged #stalking #WNBA #star #Caitlin #Clark
, 2025-01-13 22:40:00
