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Police have charged a man who allegedly sent WNBA star Caitlin Clark threatening and sexually explicit messages via social media with harassment.
The man, 55-year-old Michael Lewis of Texas, was arrested Sunday at a hotel in Indianapolis, home to Clark’s Indiana Fever team.
Law enforcement officials identified messages sent by Mr. Lewis to Clark at X as allegedly threatening and sexually explicit, police said.
Mr Lewis is due 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 publc lets you drive by the gainbridge… Countryside.”
“Getting tickets. I’m sitting behind the counter,” read another post.
The messages were sent between December 16 and January 2, according to the documents.
Clark, the 2024 Women’s Basketball Association Rookie of the Year, reported the messages to police and said she feared for her safety.
According to the ESPN sports network, the 22-year-old athlete reported Mr. Lewis to the police before he arrived in Indianapolis. He began to change his appearance in public due to security concerns.
The social media posts “caused Caitlin Clark to feel panicked, intimidated, intimidated or threatened,” prosecutors said in court documents.
Mr. Lewis was found by the FBI after tracking the IP addresses of messages from an Indianapolis hotel, Marion County District Attorney Ryan Mears said.
The man told police his messages were “imagination, a fantasy type thing and a joke, and had nothing to do with the threat,” according to court documents.
In a press release Monday, Mr. Mears said “it takes a lot of courage for women to come forward in these cases, and that’s why many don’t.”
“In 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 comes just weeks after an Oregon man was arrested and charged with stalking and harassing women’s college basketball star Paige Bueckers.
