Stalker? or Fan that Had Just Gone Too Far?

Stacy Elizabeth Beshear was arrested on September 18th, 2008 and on Tuesday, October 7th was charged with stalking Luke Walton. Luke Walton is a forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, and son of NBA Champion and broadcaster Bill Walton. The charge is officially a misdemeanor count of stalking, to which Beshear entered a plea of Not Guilty. The charge she faces could lead to a maximum of 1 year in jail if she is found guilty, but that will probably be at the discretion of the judge in front of whom she will appear.

The details of the case have not been fully released, but the arrest took place after Walton said that Beshear pulled up to his car and pretended to fire gunshots at him with her hand. By itself that could be considered harassment if you are unfamiliar with the person doing it, but apparently this was one instance in a long line of behavior that had Walton worried about his safety. Walton reported that Beshear has been harassing him since late last year, and he was quoted in the Orange County Register as stating that "she waited outside his Manhattan Beach home numerous times and wrote on his car with a marker after he refused to sign an autograph."

According to Sergeant Steve Tobias of the Manhattan Beach Police Department, who was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, "She had been following him to his practice site and following him home and repeatedly asking him to sign basketballs after he'd already done so.At one point, she got upset and was taking a Sharpie pen to his vehicle after he refused to sign a soccer ball." He went on to say that she was approached by police to stop doing what she was doing, but "crossed the line" when she followed Walton to a fellow teammates house and proceeded to pretend she had a fake gun. Tobias stated that "Shewas following him for a large part of the day and at one point drove side by side with him and gestured at him, extended her hand out the window and acted like she was cocking a gun."