The man charged with stalking WNBA star, Caitlin Clark, made a disturbing admission as soon as he entered the court room.
Earlier this month, Michael Lewis from Texas was arrested from an Indianapolis hotel, where Clark’s basketball team, Indiana Fever, is based on suspicion of stalking and harassing the superstar.
Police said the athlete had been subjected to several threatening, vulgar and sexually explicit messages over social media between December 16 to January 2, before the FBI traced the IP addresses and linked Lewis to the content.
Court documents alleged one message sent to Clark on Twitter read: “@CaitlinClark22 been driving around your house 3x a day..but don’t call the law just yet, the publc is allowed to drive by gainbridge..aka Caitlin’s Fieldhouse”, reports the BBC.
Another read: “I’m getting tickets. I’m sitting behind the bench.”
The 22-year-old athlete, who was crowned WNBA’s rookie of the year after an impressive college career with Iowa where she broke league records, reported the content out of fear for her safety.
Now one of the most prominent sports stars in the US with a $28 million Nike sponsorship, she claimed she had to alter her appearance due to the messages.
The 55-year-old appeared before Marion County Superior Court on Tuesday (January 14) where he made some outlandish comments.
Before Superior Court Judge Angela Davis called for his case, Lewis yelled out that he is ‘guilty as charged’, reports NBC News, and went on to disrupt the court several more times with his outbursts.
At one point he shouted: “Throw me the booky!”
When court records included a ‘Jr’ before his name, he lashed out: “I’m free! I guess you got the wrong guy!”
Courtroom officials attempted to stifle Lewis by reminding him not to interrupt, while the judge told him to ‘stop talking’, according to The Guardian.
The court then heard Clark felt ‘terrorized, frightened, intimated or threatened’ and had a ‘reasonable fear of sexual battery’.
Lewis butted in, ‘Can I say something’, to which the Judge replied, ‘Not yet’.
When asked if he suffers from a mental illness, he said ‘I need my medicines’, and repeated the response when he was asked if he needed legal representation.
Lewis said he couldn’t afford an attorney since he is out of work and has $100 in savings.
He also claimed he lives in his car, a 2016 Toyota Avalon, worth ‘ballpark 10 grand’.
Lewis then signed court orders that he would stop contacting Clark and stay away from Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the home ground of Indiana Fever.
He has also been prohibited from entering Hinkle Fieldhouse, where Clark’s boyfriend and Butler University assistant basketball coach, Connor McCaffery works.
Lewis entered a not guilty plea, submitted on his behalf, and has been held on a $50,000 bond.
If he forked out, Lewis would be required to remain in Indiana and monitored by a GPS tracker, but Lewis denied bail, declaring: “I’m here. I’m staying.”
Lewis has been charged with one count of stalking after ‘repeated or continuing harassment of Caitlin Clark’.
Court documents reveal Lewis was aware he was not in a relationship with Clark and had allegedly said to officers during arrest: “It’s an imagination, fantasy type thing and it’s a joke, and it’s nothing to do with threatening.”
Marion county prosecutor, Ryan 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 is setting an example for all women who deserve to live and work in Indy without the threat of sexual violence.”
