A Shield Against Stalkers
Stalkers are a strange breed of bully, as Meg Ryan and countless less famous people have had the misfortune to find out. A woman looks up and there he is, outside her bedroom window, in the lobby of her office, in her car’s rearview mirror. A man pokes an answering machine button and out pour 33 messages from a woman whose tone suggests she is one unsettling shade shy of stability.
Some stalkers cunningly refrain from threatening overtly. Others suffer delusions that make them think their attention is sought. Neither a verbalized threat nor the stalker’s intention determines whether someone has a legitimate right to be frightened. Yet California’s anti-stalking law requires proof that stalkers openly threatened and intended to scare.
This potentially deadly weakness can be fixed. The state defines a stalker as anyone who “willfully, maliciously and repeatedly follows or harasses another person and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for their safety or the safety of their immediate family.” The Legislature should fix the language to focus on the terrifying behavior that causes a victim to fear for his or her safety, which may or may not include provable intention or an overt threat.
The man who last month broke into a Malibu house that he thought belonged to the actress Ryan illustrates the law’s shortcomings. He claimed Ryan was his fiancee and had forgotten to leave a key for him under the doormat. So he broke a window and made himself at home. The actress says she has never met the guy--and doesn’t want to. She succeeded last week in getting a three-year civil restraining order that requires him to stay at least 150 yards away from her.
Meanwhile, the man--who last year armed himself and tried to break into President Bush’s Texas ranch--told sheriff’s deputies he will find Ryan no matter where she goes. Yet, because he didn’t make an overt threat, he faces only two misdemeanor counts of aggravated trespassing, which could land him in jail for just one year. He should face a more serious felony stalking charge that carries a five-year sentence.
Stalkers do not target celebrities only. Plumbers and nurses have suffered the experience of being shadowed by a neighbor, spurned boyfriend or obsessed stranger. That heart-in-the-throat, can’t-sleep-at-night fear is real, even when there is no threatening letter or shout of “I’m going to kill you.”
Law enforcement used to treat stalking as a private dispute, often taking no action until it was too late. Actress Theresa Saldana launched a public awareness campaign about the issue after a deranged drifter stalked and then repeatedly stabbed her in 1982. But the law changed only after television actress Rebecca Schaeffer opened a door to her killer in 1989.
California’s anti-stalking law, the first of its kind in the nation, went into effect in 1991. Since then, the governor and Legislature have toughened the law and increased the penalties. But the law is still not tough enough. A simple change could save lives.