Man, 22, Sentenced in Harassment Case

An Encino man has been sentenced to six months in jail for continually harassing a former girlfriend who ended their relationship when he threatened her with a knife, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Theodore Ray, 22, was taken into custody Monday after Municipal Judge Kenneth Lee Chotiner determined that he had violated his probation by making numerous telephone calls to the victim.

Chotiner’s ruling, which followed a two-day hearing, was the third time that Ray had been found in violation of court orders.

“I hope this sends a message that when a court issues these restraining orders, they’re not just pieces of paper,” said Deputy City Atty. Jeffrey Harkavy, the prosecutor in the case.

“There are enforcements behind them. They are taken seriously by the court.”

The couple’s five-month relationship ended July 18 when Ray threatened the woman with a knife. He was charged with battery, and the victim obtained a restraining order that prohibited Ray from contacting her.

However, while awaiting trial on the battery charge, Ray made repeated attempts to contact the woman, who had taken refuge in a shelter for battered women.

The telephone calls and a no-contest plea to the battery charge landed him in jail with a 120-day sentence.

Less than one week after he was taken into custody, Ray wrote two letters to the victim’s family home.

He was again charged with violating the restraining order, and he pleaded no contest to two counts of the misdemeanor violation in December after receiving an early release from jail.

Ray was ordered to serve 60 days on a Caltrans work crew for this offense.

Chotiner’s ruling in the latest case came after the victim’s family submitted a letter stating that Ray made repeated phone calls to the home and that “he had been harassing the ex-girlfriend at her place of employment,” Harkavy said.

The prosecutor told the judge Monday that the woman has been forced to move out of the Southern California area.