3 weeks ago
10
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Prosecutors said the man had sent “sexually violent” messages to the Indiana Fever star and had traveled to Indianapolis to be closer to her.
Jan. 13, 2025Updated 5:51 p.m. ET
A Texas man who prosecutors say sent a series of threatening and sexually explicit messages to the basketball star Caitlin Clark and traveled to Indiana to be closer to her has been charged with stalking.
The man, Michael T. Lewis, 55, was arrested on Sunday after investigators discovered that he had sent messages from an IP address in Indianapolis and that he was staying at a hotel near the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the home of Ms. Clark’s team, the Indiana Fever of the W.N.B.A., the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday.
Ms. Clark, 22, told a lieutenant from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday that she had been “very fearful” since she learned of Mr. Lewis’s posts on X and that she had “altered her public appearances and patterns of movement” because she feared for her safety, according to court documents.
Ms Clark said that she did not know Mr. Lewis and had never responded to any of his messages or posts.
Prosecutors said Mr. Lewis had stalked her from Dec. 16 until Jan. 11. Court documents described the messages as “sexually violent” and said that they had “actually caused Caitlin Clark to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated or threatened.”
Mr. Lewis traveled to Indianapolis “with the intent to be in proximity to the victim,” court documents said.
