On Sunday, a 55-year-old man was arrested on a felony stalking cost after allegedly sending repeated sexually violent messages to Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark. The person, a Texas resident named Michael Lewis, reportedly traveled to Indianapolis in an try to see her, and is alleged to have despatched disturbing messages that had been threatening in nature.
On social media, Lewis revealed he was in Indianapolis, allegedly posting on X, per BBC: “@CaitlinClark22 been driving round your home 3x a day..however don’t name the regulation simply but, the publc is allowed to drive by gainbridge..aka Caitlin’s Fieldhouse.” He additionally said he would buy tickets to Butler basketball video games, which Clark incessantly attends.
The messages had been regarding sufficient to Clark that she “altered her public appearances and patterns of motion as a result of worry for her security,” based on charging paperwork launched by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Workplace obtained by NPR.
On Jan. 8, police confronted Lewis, who was reportedly at a resort a mile from Gainbridge Fieldhouse, however he’s reported to have downplayed his messages and claimed to solely be in Indianapolis on trip. Regardless of police warning Lewis concerning the posts, he shortly resumed his tagging of Clark from his X account.
Lewis’s felony cost, formally often called “prison stalking” carries a jail sentence of as much as 6 years in jail, in addition to a wonderful of as much as $10,000, per ESPN. Stalking behaviors can embody repeated calls, textual content messages, emails or posts through social media, following the sufferer or exhibiting up close to the place they reside or work, and threatening to harm the sufferer or individuals they care about — a lot of which Lewis allegedly did.
On Tuesday, Lewis was ordered held on $50,000 bail, and was ordered to steer clear of Indianapolis basketball arenas. Lewis is due again in court docket on March 31 for pre-trial listening to, per ESPN.
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears credited Clark for coming ahead with the messages, per ESPN.
“It takes a whole lot of braveness for ladies to come back ahead in these circumstances, which is why many don’t,” mentioned Mears. “In doing so, the sufferer is setting an instance for all ladies who should reside and work in Indy with out the specter of sexual violence.”
Clark is the newest basketball star to take care of stalking and harassment
In September, a 40-year-old man was arrested for stalking UConn star Paige Bueckers. That man, Robert Cole Parmalee of Grants Go, Oregon, in the end obtained a one-year suspended sentence and three years’ probation. He’s additionally barred from the state of Connecticut from three years, along with any area or facility the place Bueckers’ staff is — and all WNBA arenas.
Beforehand, Parmalee advised police that he was touring to Connecticut to suggest to Bueckers and get her expelled from UConn, per ESPN. His social media accounts had been additionally largely composed of messages about Beuckers, together with a submit with a pretend marriage ceremony invitation.
The similarities between the 2 circumstances are placing. In each circumstances, gamers had been allegedly focused by stalkers from throughout the nation who developed a type of romantic obsession with them, and leveraged social media to harass them.
Each stars have helped elevate ladies’s basketball, with Clark dramatically elevating the visibility WNBA this previous season and Bueckers rising as one of many largest names in school basketball. These incidents have highlighted the darkish aspect of that fame, a pernicious actuality that each Clark and Bueckers have privately needed to take care of.
The significance of prioritizing WNBA participant security
As ladies’s basketball continues to blow up in recognition, prioritizing the protection of high-profile athletes ought to come earlier than anything. This previous season, the WNBA applied full-time constitution flights as a technique to assist improve the protection of athletes.
Previous to the implementation of constitution flights, Clark and her teammates had been adopted on the DFW Airport when the Fever had been in Dallas for preseason motion, shining gentle on the significance of including extra security measures. That got here almost a yr after Brittney Griner was harassed on the similar airport.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert through the WNBA Finals that the league plans on assembly with expertise suppliers, growing psychological well being sources, and exploring different interventions to fight hate and harassment gamers face.
“We’ll meet with the Gamers Affiliation, the gamers, groups, we’ll work collectively to broaden and improve our efforts, and are going to strategy this multi-dimensionally, using expertise, prioritizing psychological well being, reinforcing bodily safety and growing monitoring,” Engelbert mentioned. “We all know there’s extra work to be completed, and as a league, we’re absolutely dedicated to listening to the gamers and different stakeholders on this and different necessary points.”
How the league can make the most of expertise to stop and mitigate the specter of stalkers stays to be seen, however as evidenced by the current incident Clark confronted, the menace is actual and must be prioritized.
Whereas this case was delivered to gentle as a result of court docket paperwork being made public, it’s solely attainable Clark has confronted different threatening incidents we don’t find out about, given how a lot her visibility has skyrocketed in recent times. The identical might go for a large number of different ladies’s basketball stars.
And, whereas each women and men could be victims of stalking, research present that girls are almost thrice as more likely to be a sufferer of stalking of their lifetimes. An estimated 15.2% of girls and 5.7% of males have been a sufferer of stalking throughout their lifetimes, per a 2011 examine from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. And within the background of stalking incidents is the truth that girls are more likely to face different types of violent crimes — for instance, 19.3% of girls (in comparison with 1.7% of males) have reported that they’ve been raped throughout their lifetime, per the CDC.
The gendered nature of crimes like stalking and sexual violence highlights why additional protections need to be prolonged to ladies athletes. And, whereas constitution flights had been begin — and sure enhanced the protection of WNBA gamers this previous season — making certain that athletes have ample safety and authorized help transferring ahead is of the utmost significance, and will proceed to be a serious precedence for the league because it continues to develop.