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Police have charged a man with stalking who allegedly sent multiple threats and sexually explicit messages to WNBA star Kaitlyn Clarke over social media.
The man, Michael Lewis, 55, of Texas, was arrested Sunday at a hotel in Indianapolis, the city where Clark’s Indiana Fever team is based.
Law enforcement officials identified messages sent to Clark by Mr. Lewis on X that allegedly contained threatening and sexually explicit messages, police said.
Mr Lewis is due to appear in court on Tuesday morning and, if found guilty, could face up to six years in prison and a $10,000 (£8,211) fine.
According to court documents, one of the messages allegedly sent to Clark read: “@CaitlinClark22 drives by your house 3 times a day..but don’t call the law yet, the public is allowed to drive by Gainbridge ..aka Caitlin’s Fieldhouse.”
“Taking tickets. Sitting behind the bench,” read another message.
The messages were sent between Dec. 16 and Jan. 2, according to court documents.
Clark, the 2024 Women’s National Basketball Association Rookie of the Year, reported the messages to police and said she feared for her safety.
According to the sports network ESPN, the 22-year-old athlete notified the police about them before Mr. Lewis arrived in Indianapolis. She had taken to changing her appearance in public due to safety concerns.
The social media posts “caused Caitlin Clark to feel terrorized, intimidated, intimidated or threatened,” prosecutors said in court documents.
Mr. Lewis was found by the FBI after they traced the IP addresses of the messages to a hotel in downtown Indianapolis, Marion County District Attorney Ryan Mears said.
The man told police his messages were “a figment of the imagination, a fantasy and a joke, and nothing to do with the threat,” according to court documents.
In a press release on Monday, Mr Mears said “it takes a lot of courage for women to come forward in these cases, which is why many don’t”.
“In doing so, the victim sets an example for all women who deserve to live and work in Indy without the threat of sexual assault.”
The incident comes just weeks after an Oregon man was arrested and charged with stalking and harassing women’s basketball star Paige Bukers.
