You can be Charged With Felony Stalking for Simply Following a Girl You Like

The scary answer is YES.

If you see a girl at a bar and you talk to her and you ask her out and she says NO. Then you happen to see her a few days later at a mall or another location and she gets in her car. You decide to follow her because you want to ask her “one more time” if she would consider going out on a date with you. You follow her for several miles. She becomes frightened and she pulls into a police station and calls 911 and says “someone is following her and she is in fear”. This can be enough under the current state of law to have you arrested and prosecuted for felony stalking.

The law says a person can be prosecuted for following a person in a manner than would lead the other person to believe that a “credible threat” to his or her safety was being made.

A “course of conduct” could be as little as two or more acts (asking her out at the bar and then following her in her car). If the alleged victim reasonably believes you are taking steps to disturb or annoy him or her you could be arrested.

The bottom line is if you want to make contact with a person for any reason, do not choose to follow them in your vehicle. If you have been told “NO” when asking someone for a date the best course of action is to take NO for an answer. The good news is that there are tens of thousands of people in the county where you live that might love to go out with you. Pick any of those thousands of people to ask out but NEVER take steps that could get you arrested for a very serious crime such as felony stalking per Penal Code Section 646.9.

If you have been accused of stalking feel free to contact the criminal defense attorneys at Wallin and Klarich. At Wallin and Klarich we have been helping people accused of serious crimes such as stalking for over 40 years.

You can reach us toll free at (888) 749-0034 or go to wklaw.com for help. We will be there when you call.

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