Anti-stalking law still rarely used
On the day before Valentine’s Day, a 52-year-old Cary man followed a woman home from work, cut her car off and blocked her car with his, the woman claimed in court records.
Three days later, he sent her at least 10 text messages asking her to come over and talk with him, she said. She did not respond, but he appeared at her friend’s home looking for her. The friend called police, and he left, she said.
But the woman, who is in her 40s, requested – and received – a temporary stalking no-contact order.
“His behavior and harassment and stalking is now making me concerned for my and my family’s safety,” she wrote in her request. “He is obsessed with me.”
The court paperwork does not indicate how the two know each other, if at all. But that’s the point of the law that created this new protective order Jan. 1.
The stalking no-contact order protects people who were followed, monitored, threatened or otherwise stalked at least twice by another person. Other no-contact orders previously protected only current or former family and household members, significant others or victims of sexual abuse.
The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office has processed about six such orders in the past two months, and state police noted about 20 in effect statewide, officials said.
You can read more at the NW Herald.
February 23 2010 03:24 pm | In the news and Programs