Woman Pleads Guilty in Cyber-Stalking Case

A former Las Vegas topless dancer has pleaded guilty to felony stalking for creating a Web site that featured sexually explicit photos of her former lover.

Robin Kelly, now a Simi Valley resident, surprised prosecutors last week by changing her previous not-guilty plea and admitting she had harassed the married man.

“She pleaded guilty to attempted extortion and two counts of stalking,” Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Temple said. “And she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of witness intimidation.”

Kelly, 43, has no criminal record and is expected to be placed on probation when she is sentenced next month.

Temple said he will ask that the terms of probation specify that she not be allowed to use a computer or the Internet. Deputy Public Defender Denise McPeak said she would oppose any blanket order prohibiting computer use.

According to court testimony, Kelly, who danced under the name “Ruby Tuesday,” began harassing Jim Day, an editorial cartoonist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, after he ended their seven-year affair in April 2000.

For months, she made annoying phone calls and sent threatening letters and e-mail, before setting up a Web site that featured photographs of their sexual trysts, police testified. The site included photographs of Day’s cars and a map with directions to his Las Vegas home.

Kelly also sent postcards advertising the site to his family, neighbors and co-workers. The site has been taken down by court order.

Before her arrest, Kelly told police she never intended to harm anyone. She said she only wanted an apology from Day.

Her case is believed to be the first of its kind in Ventura County because electronic communications have only recently been included in state stalking laws.

Kelly, who was arrested in November, remains at a Ventura County jail in lieu of $200,000 bail.