US man charged with stalking WNBA and Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark – INA NEWS

Police within the US state of Indianapolis have charged a person from Texas with a felony for stalking Girls’s NBA famous person Caitlin Clark.

Michael Thomas Lewis is accused of repeated and continued harassment of the 22-year-old Clark starting on December 16, the Marion County prosecutor’s workplace wrote in a court docket submitting on Saturday. Jail data present Lewis is due in court docket on Tuesday.

Lewis posted quite a few messages on Clark’s X account, in keeping with an affidavit from a Marion County sheriff’s lieutenant.

In a single, he stated he had been driving by the Gainbridge Fieldhouse – one of many arenas the place the Fever play dwelling video games – 3 times a day, and in one other, he stated he had “one foot on a banana peel and the opposite on a stalking cost”. Different messages directed at Clark had been sexually express.

The posts “really brought about Caitlin Clark to really feel terrorised, frightened, intimidated, or threatened” and an implicit or express menace additionally was made “with the intent to put Caitlin Clark in affordable worry of sexual battery,” prosecutors wrote within the Marion County Superior Court docket submitting.

Lewis may withstand six years in jail and a $10,000 fantastic if convicted.

The FBI realized that the X account belonged to Lewis and that the messages had been despatched from IP addresses related to an Indianapolis resort and a downtown public library.

Indianapolis police spoke with Lewis on January 8 at his resort room. He informed officers he was in Indianapolis on trip. When requested why he was making so many posts about Clark, Lewis replied: “Simply the identical cause all people makes posts,” in keeping with court docket paperwork.

He informed police that he didn’t imply any hurt and that he fantasised about being in a relationship with Clark.

“It’s an creativeness, fantasy sort factor and it’s a joke, and it’s nothing to do with threatening,” he informed police, in keeping with the court docket paperwork.

In asking the court docket for a better than normal bond, the prosecutor’s workplace stated Lewis travelled from his dwelling in Texas to Indianapolis “with the intent to be in shut proximity to the sufferer”.

The prosecutor’s workplace additionally sought a stay-away order as a particular situation if Lewis is launched from jail earlier than trial. Prosecutors requested that Lewis be ordered to avoid the Gainbridge and Hinkle fieldhouses the place the Fever play dwelling video games.

Responding to the threats, Clark informed police she feared for her security and had altered her look in public.

“It takes loads of braveness for girls to return ahead in these circumstances, which is why many don’t,” Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears stated, in keeping with The Indianapolis Star.

“In doing so, the sufferer is setting an instance for all girls who need to dwell and work in Indy with out the specter of sexual violence.”

Clark, 22, was the primary total decide within the 2024 WNBA Draft after a celebrated profession at Iowa. She earned All-Star and All-WNBA honours and was named the WNBA Rookie of the Yr within the 2024 season.