Man Pleads No Contest in ‘Stalking’ Case : Crime: Police say Mark Bleakley harassed his ex-girlfriend. He faces up to three years in prison under a new state law that makes it a felony to harass someone repeatedly.

A Sherman Oaks man who police say repeatedly harassed and threatened his ex-girlfriend pleaded no contest Monday to violating the state’s new felony “stalking law.”

Mark Bleakley, 30, who wept during a brief appearance in Van Nuys Municipal Court, faces up to three years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 15.

Bleakley has been in jail since May 24, when he became the first person in California to be charged under a law that makes it a felony to harass someone repeatedly, even though the individual acts might only be misdemeanors.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Walmark, who prosecuted the case, said Bleakley had not been promised a reduced sentence in exchange for the no-contest plea, which is legally the equivalent of a guilty plea.

Until the stalking law went into effect Jan. 1, prosecutors said there was little police could do about harassment complaints because each individual case is considered minor and time-consuming to investigate.

Violating a restraining order is a misdemeanor and difficult to prove when it’s one person’s word against another’s, according to authorities.

The new statute is a “helpful tool,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew W. Diamond said, “because it allows us to intercede before actual harm comes to a victim.”

To support a felony charge of stalking, the law requires that authorities prove that a suspect repeatedly threatened or vandalized the property of a victim, and had also violated a civil court order to stop the harassment.

Police say Bleakley began harassing Leslie Wein, 26, of Encino shortly after she broke off the couple’s two-year relationship in April.

In court documents, he is accused of twice slashing the tires on her car and twice pouring acid on her vehicle.

Police also say he stole her German shepherd from her home, then left photographs of the dog on cars parked outside her residence.

In mid-May, she obtained a court order forbidding Bleakley from annoying or going near her.

A short time later, Wein found two tires on a rented car slashed while she was eating at a Sepulveda restaurant.

As she was giving information to police at the scene, she spotted Bleakley nearby, allowing police to confirm violation of the court order.

Wein also received numerous phone calls in which the caller would hang up after she answered.

Police traced the calls to the office of a carwash where Bleakley worked.

State Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Fullerton) sponsored the stalker law last year after a series of killings in Orange County in 1989. All were women who had obtained restraining orders against former spouses or boyfriends but were harassed and subsequently killed by them.