A Texas man who prosecutors say despatched a collection of threatening and sexually express messages to the basketball star Caitlin Clark and traveled to Indiana to be nearer to her has been charged with stalking.
The person, Michael T. Lewis, 55, was arrested on Sunday after investigators found that he had despatched messages from an IP deal with in Indianapolis and that he was staying at a resort close to the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the house of Ms. Clark’s staff, the Indiana Fever of the W.N.B.A., the Marion County Prosecutor’s Workplace stated on Monday.
Ms. Clark, 22, advised a lieutenant from the Marion County Sheriff’s Workplace on Saturday that she had been “very fearful” since she discovered of Mr. Lewis’s posts on X and that she had “altered her public appearances and patterns of motion” as a result of she feared for her security, in response to court docket paperwork.
Ms Clark stated that she didn’t know Mr. Lewis and had by no means responded to any of his messages or posts.
Prosecutors stated Mr. Lewis had stalked her from Dec. 16 till Jan. 11. Courtroom paperwork described the messages as “sexually violent” and stated that they’d “truly triggered Caitlin Clark to really feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated or threatened.”
Mr. Lewis traveled to Indianapolis “with the intent to be in proximity to the sufferer,” court docket paperwork stated.
When Indianapolis cops discovered that he was within the metropolis and talked to Mr. Lewis exterior his resort room on Jan. 8, he advised them he was in “an imaginary relationship,” and that his messages had been a “fantasy-type factor,” a “joke,” and “nothing to do with threatening,” in response to court docket paperwork.
The police requested Mr. Lewis to not ship extra messages to Ms. Clark, however he continued, court docket paperwork stated.
Mr. Lewis was charged with stalking, a felony that’s punishable by as much as six years in jail. He’s scheduled to seem in Marion Superior Courtroom on Tuesday. It was not instantly clear if he had a lawyer.
The court docket issued an order on Sunday requiring Mr. Lewis to steer clear of the Gainbridge Fieldhouse and Hinkle Fieldhouse, a basketball enviornment on the campus of Butler College.
“Irrespective of how outstanding a determine you might be, this case reveals that on-line harassment can shortly escalate to precise threats of bodily violence,” Ryan Mears, the Marion County prosecutor, stated in an announcement on Monday. “It takes loads of braveness for girls to come back ahead in these circumstances, which is why many don’t. In doing so, the sufferer is setting an instance for all ladies who should stay and work in Indy with out the specter of sexual violence.”
A consultant for Ms. Clark declined to touch upon Monday. The Indiana Fever didn’t instantly reply to messages in search of remark.
Ms. Clark has emerged as one of many largest stars in basketball, and he or she has been credited with drawing extra followers to the W.N.B.A. She received Rookie of the Yr in 2024 and led the league in assists, setting a single-season report with 337.
Final month, an Oregon man pleaded responsible to stalking one other star in ladies’s basketball, Paige Bueckers of the College of Connecticut. The person was given a one-year suspended sentence and three years of probation.