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Police have charged a man who allegedly sent multiple threats and sexually explicit messages to WNBA star Caitlin Clark via social media with harassment.
The man, Michael Lewis, 55, a native 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.
Lewis is due to appear in court on Tuesday morning and, if convicted, 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 has been driving by your house 3 times a day… but don’t call the law yet, the public can drive around Gainbridge… aka Caitlin’s Country House.”
“I’m getting tickets. I’m sitting behind the bench,” another message read.
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, had reported the messages to police and said she feared for her safety.
According to the sports network ESPN, the 22-year-old athlete informed the police about them before Lewis arrived in Indianapolis. He had begun to alter his appearance in public for security reasons.
The social media posts “caused Caitlin Clark to feel terrified, scared, intimidated or threatened,” prosecutors said in court documents.
The FBI found Lewis after they traced the IP addresses of the messages to a hotel in downtown Indianapolis, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said.
The man told police his messages were “kind of imagination, fantasy and it’s a joke, and has nothing to do with threats,” according to court documents.
In a news release Monday, Mears said “it takes a lot of courage for women to report these cases, which is why many don’t.”
“By doing so, the victim is setting an example for all women who deserve to live and work in Indy without the threat of sexual violence.”
The incident occurred just weeks after an Oregon man was arrested and accused of stalking and harassing women’s college basketball star Paige Bueckers.