Novel 10-Year Restraint Order in Stalking Case

In what is apparently the state’s first use of an anti-stalking law provision, an Orange County Municipal Court judge has issued a 10-year restraining order against a Westminster man who became obsessed with a teen-age girl he once dated.

Thuong Mong Nguyen, 21, was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for threatening a high school security guard with a gun after he followed My Hang, 17, of Santa Ana onto the campus, officials said.

In a separate case, Nguyen was also charged with stalking and kidnaping Hang last December. The kidnaping case was dropped and the felony stalking charge was reduced to a misdemeanor as part of a plea agreement by which Nguyen agreed to abide by the restraining order, which will be in force until 2003, officials said.

Nguyen was sentenced to one year in jail in the misdemeanor case, said Deputy Public Defender Daniel Cook.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Wendy Lindley said she sought the restraining order to protect the girl, who has been beaten by Nguyen in the past and feared for her safety. Orange County Municipal Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr. issued the restraining order Wednesday.

Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton), who introduced the state’s anti-stalking law when he was a state legislator, said the 10-year restraining order provision that went into effect Jan. 1 allows for greater protection of stalking victims. No other criminal penalty carries such a provision, he said.

“A 10-year restraining order sends a message that we take these crimes very seriously,” Royce said.

Cook declined to discuss his client’s feelings toward the girl but stressed that Nguyen has agreed to abide by the restraining order.

“I think that tells you where his mind is at,” Cook said.

If Nguyen violates the restraining order by contacting Hang in any way, he could be sentenced to an additional three-year prison term, Lindley said.