ANTI-STALKING LAWS CALLED INEFFECTIVE, HARD TO ENFORCE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 13, 1993                   TAG: 9304130243
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
ANTI-STALKING LAWS CALLED INEFFECTIVE, HARD TO ENFORCE
When one of the nation's first anti-stalking laws took effect a year ago in Virginia, Michelle hoped she could stop a man who has been harassing her for a decade.
But she is still waiting for police to arrest the man who has repeatedly made threatening phone calls, twice ran her car off the road and slashed her puppy's paw with a razor in her back yard.
"There's not much they can do," said Michelle, 24, a Henrico County resident who asked that her last name not be used. "I can't prove it's who I think it is."
Even if she could, the stalking law would do little to protect her, she said.
"It's only a misdemeanor, which means he's only going to get a slap on the wrist and get back out," she said.
Michelle's concerns are shared by other stalking victims and prosecutors trying to enforce the law, which was signed by Gov. Douglas Wilder last April after sailing through the General Assembly.
Last week, Richmond General District Judge Ralph B. Robertson declared the law unconstitutional when he dismissed a stalking case. The ruling is being appealed to the Circuit Court.
Virginia was the second state in the nation after California to pass an anti-stalking law. Since then, at least 30 other states have put the law on the books and Congress is considering a federal statute.
"I am astounded by how fast they've been enacted," said Joan Zorza, senior attorney for the National Center on Women and Family Law in New York.
But many states are quickly finding that their laws are flawed, Zorza said. "The reality is not many people are helped," she said.
In New York, for example, a person must have a prior conviction for domestic violence to be convicted of stalking, she said.
The Virginia law makes stalking a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. For a second conviction, the maximum penalty is a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. A third offense within five years is a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $2,500 fine. In most cases, a first-time offender gets probation.
Prosecutors say their main problem is the law's requirement that they prove the stalker intended to cause "emotional distress."
"That's a terrific burden to put on the commonwealth," said Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Joseph Morrissey. "He's going to say, `I wasn't intending to cause emotional distress. I wanted to tell her I love her.' "
Morrissey had one case in which a man was convicted of assaulting his former live-in girlfriend, but acquitted of stalking because the judge found no proof he intended to cause distress by following her. The man has appealed the assault conviction and remains free, Morrissey said.
Scott County prosecutor Jerry Kilgore, who has gotten one conviction out of three stalking cases, said the problem "is proving the fear factor. You had to prove that they fear for their lives."
"It is hard to prove intent, and we knew when we drafted the law that we were walking a fine line," said Arlington Commonwealth's Attorney Helen F. Fahey, a member of a domestic violence task force that proposed the law.
But she said the law has been helpful in defusing situations before violence erupts. "Once someone is arrested and then brought into court and tried and convicted, they get the message that such behavior is unacceptable," she said.
Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys said his office has prosecuted two stalking cases and both people were acquitted. He said he tries to charge stalkers with trespassing or breaking and entering instead.
In both stalking cases, the suspects were following former girlfriends on public streets and argued they had a right to be there.
"I can certainly see the point. That law comes very, very close to an infringement on your freedom of movement," Humphreys said.
Jane McAllister, president of Citizens Against Stalking, said the law needs to be toughened. But she said a man stopped stalking her soon after the law was enacted and she thinks he feared prosecution.
Michelle would prefer a law similar to one in Maine in which repeatedly following someone is a crime. In the meantime, she hopes her stalker will make a mistake that leads to arrest.
"I shouldn't have to change the way I live because somebody else is breaking the law," she said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB