Go Home People, Nothing to See Here…
Criminal laws are written pretty tight for a reason. Usually, for the protection of law abiding citizens. That said, sometimes there are loop holes. In this case, alleged Overland park stalker Eric Kaplan may be the benefactor of one big enough to drive a BMW through.
The definition of stalking, according to the State of Kansas:
Recklessly engaging in a course of conduct targeted at a specific person which would cause a reasonable person in the circumstances of the targeted person to fear for such person’s safety.
GUILTY – Following a woman in a car for 15 minutes while wearing a ski mask could cause someone to fear for their safety.
GUILTYish – Did Kaplan know if that the woman knew she was being followed? He may or may not have had “knowledge” that he was placing her in fear.
Now here comes the loop hole: notice the statute keeps referring to a “course of conduct.”
What’s that really mean?
“Course of conduct” means two or more acts over a period of time, however short, which evidence a continuity of purpose.
“HOUSTON, we have a problem.”
Anyway you cut it, this looks like one event to me.
If this case has a leg to stand on, it’s going to come from this part of the law alone, because as we can see there is clearly no “course of conduct”.
Any act of communication:
“Communication” means to impart a message by any method of transmission, including, but not limited to, telephoning, personally delivering, sending or having delivered, any information or material by written or printed note or letter, package, mail, courier service or electronic transmission, including electronic transmissions generated or communicated via a computer.
GULITY – My argument would be wearing the mask while driving, as she noted in the u-turn when she called police, would be an act of communication. That clearly sends one of two messages; poor fashion judgement or ill intent.
Defense attorney Carl Cornwell was quoted earlier today as saying jurors in stalking cases have to decide whether there were at least two specific acts that include threatening someone’s safety, following them or communicating with them.
That’s a close call.
I think they have what they need, but two questions remain.
Will prosecutors go to the expense of a trial and gamble on the jury seeing it their way, or drop the charges and bust Kaplan for the weed?
My prediction:
Stalking charges get dropped; weed and paraphernalia charges go straight to Diversion with mandatory “treatment” – do not pass GO – do not collect $200.
If Kaplan blows Diversion, it gets fresh look by the Court.
Go out and have a great weekend!
Too late.
http://fox4kc.com/2013/05/31/teen-accused-of-stalking-arrested-charged-in-second-case/
Amen! Little Focker is back in the pokey on a second charge with bail set at $50K. Hopefully mommy and daddy have the good sense to let him stay in the slammer until his case on Thursday.
More women may be coming forward.
Well this sure changes things plus makes me wonder about something I was told earlier today that I told Paul about.
SD, I had a call in to a close contact at the PD asking follow up questions around 5:00. This explains why I didnt get a call back. An adendum to this story is about to go up. I wrote this and got it to Hearne, I dont know, late afternoon some time, after talking to a criminal defense attorney.
I’d say this is a game changer. I don’t know why I had so much of an immediate interest in this, but its proving to have been a decent intuition.
Well I have a call in as well to my contact least as I said the tapes are mentioned this time as I had mentioned earlier today.
Escalation, I wonder when he was actually going to act on his urges.
Would soccer mom #2 have been the actual one if her spidey senses not kicked in to prevent pervert in training?
If he was mine he would stay in jail
Yep. Let’s just dispense with the Bill of Rights and all that legal mumbo-jumbo and get right to the hanging.
Good grief, Paul. Take a deep breath. Is that the kind of country you want to live in?
Irish, I totally get what you’re say, man. I’m down with the innocent till proven guilty; that even applies if you’re holding the still smoking gun. Due process, etc.
All we are talking about us the face value suppositions that form the same conclusion you would have if he was following your wife or daughter under identical circumstances.
Would you be on KCC the next day saying, calm down guys, I know what it looks like, I saw what was in his back seat, but IM not jumping to any conclusions and Id hope you guys don’t. It may all be a huge mistake.
I’d like any KCC readers who have, in their car, a condom, knife, rope, gloves, ski mask and lubricant to comment and come to Irish’ defense.
With that little assortment of products you have a limited number of intentions, no?
Not judging, just using some common sense.
There was no rope. The knife was a pocket knife and mechanic gloves…? Really? Who wears mechanic gloves to rape someone? Shit I have lubes and condoms in my car too. Get your facts straight. You must be either ignorant or incredibly bored with your lame ass life. It’s sad really.
The only people I know of that have lube AND condoms in their car are prostitutes, professional rapists don’t bother with either.
Where are your backpage ads Amanda?
Actually, Dude, recent studies have shown more and more condoms used in rape; protection against unknown disease, but most of all, taking the DNA with you, less eidence when a condom is used.
Yeah, I know, since this broke I know a lot more than I ever wanted to know about stalking and rape.
I may be appearing on CSI next doing unsub profiles.
Your all fucking ignorant. Innocent until proven guilty. It’s not your business it doesn’t affect you and you have no idea what is ACTUALLY going on BUT feel free to feed into the media that was blown up by a bored lea wood house wife. Jesus. Get a life people.
Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, the great thing about this blog is anyone can comment from any point of view, and I welcome yours like anyone else’s. However, when it comes to how to respond to you, I just don’t know where to start, so I guess the best place is with your opening line, which reads, “Your all fucking ignorant.”
The word “your” usually comes before another word, a noun or a pronoun, to show that it belongs to “you”. The proper word for the thought you meant to convey would be “you’re”, a contraction meaning “you are”. See, “you are all fucking ignorant” makes perfect sense.
As far as “innocent until proven guilty”, that fact’s been covered a few times. I’m a total supporter of due process and have said so. The comments revolve around what most people with cognitive thought processes would call presumed intent. It goes back to the old adage, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck…. and while I have held short of calling him a duck, but he is certainly an alleged duck.
Your next comment confuses me; “It’s not your business it doesn’t affect you and you have no idea what is ACTUALLY going on BUT feel free to feed into the media that was blown up by a bored lea wood house wife.”
It’s not our business? It’s news, Amanda. You were apparently reading the story, about 1,000,000+ other people have as well in all the media outlets that have used the story. It’s news; it’s all our business. And speaking for the moms who have chimed in, they sure think it’s their business and I can’t disagree with them. Maybe I should alert the local radio and TV stations to knock it off at 5:00 and 6:00pm each night, it’s just none of our/their business!
This was just concocted or blown up by a bored “lea wood” housewife? In those 15 or 20 tense moments of being followed while driving, I doubt there was a lot of boredom going on. (I’m not going to dig into why you seem like such an angry little thing….)
You commented; “There was no rope. The knife was a pocket knife and mechanic gloves…? Really? Who wears mechanic gloves to rape someone? Shit I have lubes and condoms in my car too. Get your facts straight.”
Again, all my information came from police reports, media reports, people directly involved in the case and court filings, which I monitor daily. Amanda, if nothing else, we have our facts more straight and have provided more information than any of the rest of the media who have, at best, soft peddled this case.
I do thank you for and had no idea until you pointed it out that there are standard issue rape gloves! I also did not know “mechanics gloves” are not the glove of choice. So I’m assuming the rapist with style and discretion would be wearing Cole Haan, or at least something in a lambskin, but certainly nothing bubble packed off the rack at Ace Hardware or AutoZone, correct? Thank you for providing that factoid. I’ve not had time but I’ll research that later.
I’ve not printed this yet, but I have a personal friend, lives in the neighborhood and he shops at the Price Chopper in question, we’ll call him David, mainly because that’s his name. (I just want to keep my facts straight) When this story broke his wife emailed me and said David’s seen this guy several times, sitting in the parking lot, in his car, wearing a stocking cap. Amanda, I ask you this; how many times can David go grocery shopping in a week? I bet he goes a time or two a week. And in those limited trips, he’s seen this guy multiple times and for some reason he stood out to my friend. You know what that tells me? Mr. Kaplan as invested far more time honing his skills than I have point out here.
Listen to what Ken Cullen has to say. Ken has counseled more than 3,000 male sexual offenders, said that rape is often the product of fantasy and planning and can take a great deal of time, beginning perhaps with the attacker stalking his victim and ending with the actual rape.
Eileen Treacy who is a psychology instructor at Lehman College and an expert witness at rape trials said “I have learned to respect molesters and rapists in terms of how they go about planning.” She went on to say that “rapists often get more pleasure from planning the assault — including fantasizing, picking out clothing and choosing the victim — than from the rape.”
But I’m still OK if you think this is all cooked up and I’ve over reacted to something that’s no one’s business. I’m assuming you mean this is only germane to Kaplan and whichever bored housewife he’s stalking? I’m sorry, maybe everyone should have just backed off until something really happened.
And your final comment, “You must be either ignorant or incredibly bored with your lame ass life. It’s sad really.” No, Amanda, I’ve have a MENSA level IQ and I’m not bored, as long as I have little nuggets of gold like you that come my way from day to day, I’ll be amused for a long time. I’m a long ways from bored, but thanks for playing along. As usual, I appreciate all comments, even yours.
Oh, I’m not going to delve into why you have “lubes and condoms” in your car; it’s really none of my business.
If the police want to make a case that he may have stalked more women, maybe they should publicize what his BMW looks like. Is it a sedan, an SUV? I would like other people to get a look at it to help with the case!