Posted by jammerlich on January 10, 2006, at 11:47:44
In reply to Re: please be civil --- If I go to jail..... » one woman cine, posted by Susan47 on January 9, 2006, at 22:48:42
I wanted to comment from a legal perspective because it seems to be a concern for you. I'm going to keep it pretty general because laws can vary from state to state. But basically, you need to look into your state's stalking and harassment laws. Generally for stalking, the alleged stalker's intent really doesn't matter. What does matter is how the other party feels. If that other party feels threatened and a judge and/or jury determines that the, so called, "reasonable person" would also feel threatened, then the alleged stalker becomes a stalker in the legal sense. Typically the content of the phone calls would be most important here, but, in extreme cases, I would think that a large number of calls could result in feelings of being threatened. As for harassment, quantity is a big, big concern and feelings of being threatened don't matter at all. In some states, once a person is told to stop (by the person being harassed), even one more phone call can be considered harassment.
Susan, if I were you, I would be extremely concerned, particularly about harassment, because he asked asked you, in writing, to stop. I know it isn't easy, but I would suggest you do anything you can to stop yourself. Sometimes a phone company will block certain numbers so they can't be dialed. See if they can do this for you and give them every number you know of for him so that even if you try to dial, they won't go through. If they can't do that, then consider having your phone at home completely shut off. That way you'd have to leave the house to call - maybe that would be a deterrent for you. Those things may sound drastic to you, but this is a serious situation with real, legal consequences.
poster:jammerlich
thread:592087
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060110/msgs/597563.html