A Texas man who prosecutors say despatched a collection of threatening and sexually specific messages to basketball star Caitlin Clark and traveled to Indiana to be nearer to her has been charged with stalking.
The person, 55-year-old Michael T. Lewis, was arrested Sunday after investigators found he had been sending messages from an IP tackle in Indianapolis and that he was staying at a lodge close to Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the house of Ms. Clark’s staff, the WNBA Indiana Fever, the district legal professional’s workplace stated Marion on Monday.
Ms. Clark, 22, advised a lieutenant with the Marion County Sheriff’s Workplace on Saturday that she had been “very scared” since studying of Mr. Lewis’s posts on X and that she had “modified her public appearances and patterns of visitors” as a result of she feared for her security, in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
Ms Clarke stated she didn’t know Mr Lewis and had by no means responded to any of his messages or posts.
Prosecutors stated Mr Lewis stalked her from December 16 to January 11. Courtroom paperwork describe the messages as “sexually abusive” and say they “truly triggered Kaitlyn Clark to really feel terrorized, intimidated, frightened or threatened.”
Mr. Lewis traveled to Indianapolis “with the intention of being close to the sufferer,” courtroom paperwork stated.
When Indianapolis cops discovered he was on the town and speaking to Mr. Lewis exterior his lodge room on January 8, he advised them he was in an “imaginary relationship” and that his messages had been “one thing of a fantasy kind,” “a joke” and “nothing to do with the menace,” in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
Police requested Mr. Lewis to not ship any extra messages to Ms. Clark, however he continued, courtroom paperwork stated.
Mr. Lewis was charged with stalking, a felony punishable by as much as six years in jail. He’s scheduled to seem in Marion Superior Courtroom on Tuesday. It was not clear if he has a lawyer.
The courtroom issued an order Sunday requiring Mr. Lewis to avoid Gainbridge Fieldhouse and Hinkle Fieldhouse, a basketball area on the Butler College campus.
“Regardless of how distinguished a determine you might be, this case reveals that on-line harassment can rapidly escalate to precise threats of bodily violence,” Marion County District Legal professional Ryan Mears stated in a press release Monday. “It takes a whole lot of braveness for ladies to return ahead in these instances, which is why a lot of them do not. On this means, the sufferer units an instance for all girls who need to dwell and work in Indy with out the specter of sexual violence.
Representatives for Ms. Clark and the Indiana Fever didn’t instantly reply Monday to messages searching for remark.
Ms. Clark has turn into one in every of basketball’s greatest stars and is credited attracting more fans within the WNBA She gained Rookie of the 12 months in 2024. and led the league in assists, setting a single-season report with 337.
Final month, a person from Oregon pleaded guilty to pursuing one other girls’s basketball star, College of Connecticut’s Paige Bukers. The person acquired a one-year suspended sentence and three years of probation.
