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21 Harv. Women's L.J. 229 (1998)
Anti-Stalking Laws: Do They Adequately Protect Stalking Victims

handle is hein.journals/hwlj21 and id is 235 raw text is: ANTI-STALKING LAWS: DO THEY ADEQUATELY PROTECT STALKING VICTIMS? JENNIFER L. BRADFIELD* I. INTRODUCTION I had just moved to Boulder to begin my first year of law school when a neighbor who lived across the hall decided, despite the fact that he barely knew me, that I was the woman with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life. He left notes on my car, flowers outside my front door, and countless messages on my answering machine-all begging me to give him a chance. Just marry me' he would say. We can have separate bedrooms. You don't even have to kiss me the first year My continual responses that I was not interested in him and that nothing would ever happen between us only seemed to make him more persist- ent. At first I thought I could control the situation. That is, until I learned of his long history of mental illness. He had suffered a severe head injury in a hang gliding accident ten years before, leaving him with the mental capacity of a twelve-year-old. In the years following his injury, the police had been summoned to his apartment on several occasions after he had threatened to commit suicide. Just prior to my moving in, he had threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and himself after she had obtained a restraining order against him.' When she reported his threats to the police, he was given a choice of either being placed under arrest or entering a mental institution. He chose the latter. Despite the fact that his violent outbursts and refusals to cooperate at the first institution landed him in a more restrictive, high-security facility, he was out in less than one month. Within weeks of his release, he was arrested for har- assment and for again violating the restraining order obtained by his ex-girlfriend.2 * Associate, Faegre & Benson, Denver, Colorado; J.D., graduated first in class from University of Colorado at Boulder, 1997. I would like to thank Professor David Hill for his personal and professional support and Professor Claudia Bayliff for her assistance and encouragement in publishing this Note. I would also like to thank Eileen MacMillan, Malcolm MacMillan, and Bill Johnson for their enduring support through a difficult time. I Despite his history of mental illness, he had no difficulty purchasing the gun that he planned to use to carry out his threats. 2To my knowledge, he never served any jail time in connection with this arrest.

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