Clark told police she feared for her safety and had altered her appearance in public after receiving the messages on X.
Police in the US state of Indianapolis have charged a man from Texas with a felony for stalking Women’s NBA superstar Caitlin Clark.
Michael Thomas Lewis is accused of repeated and continued harassment of the 22-year-old Clark beginning on December 16, the Marion County prosecutor’s office wrote in a court filing on Saturday. Jail records show Lewis is due in court on Tuesday.
Lewis posted numerous messages on Clark’s X account, according to an affidavit from a Marion County sheriff’s lieutenant.
In one, he said he had been driving by the Gainbridge Fieldhouse – one of the arenas where the Fever play home games – three times a day, and in another, he said he had “one foot on a banana peel and the other on a stalking charge”. Other messages directed at Clark were sexually explicit.
The posts “actually caused Caitlin Clark to feel terrorised, frightened, intimidated, or threatened” and an implicit or explicit threat also was made “with the intent to place Caitlin Clark in reasonable fear of sexual battery,” prosecutors wrote in the Marion County Superior Court filing.
Lewis could face up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.
The FBI learned that the X account belonged to Lewis and that the messages were sent from IP addresses associated with an Indianapolis hotel and a downtown public library.
Indianapolis police spoke with Lewis on January 8 at his hotel room. He told officers he was in Indianapolis on vacation. When asked why he was making so many posts about Clark, Lewis replied: “Just the same reason everybody makes posts,” according to court documents.
He told police that he did not mean any harm and that he fantasised about being in a relationship with Clark.
“It’s an imagination, fantasy type thing and it’s a joke, and it’s nothing to do with threatening,” he told police, according to the court documents.
In asking the court for a higher than standard bond, the prosecutor’s office said Lewis travelled from his home in Texas to Indianapolis “with the intent to be in close proximity to the victim”.
The prosecutor’s office also sought a stay-away order as a specific condition if Lewis is released from jail before trial. Prosecutors requested that Lewis be ordered to stay away from the Gainbridge and Hinkle fieldhouses where the Fever play home games.
Responding to the threats, Clark told police she feared for her safety and had altered her appearance in public.
“It takes a lot of courage for women to come forward in these cases, which is why many don’t,” Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears said, according to The Indianapolis Star.
“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.”
Clark, 22, was the number one overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft after a celebrated career at Iowa. She earned All-Star and All-WNBA honours and was named the WNBA Rookie of the Year in the 2024 season.
