Orders of Protection: What is Stalking?
As discussed in our previous blog, one of the prohibitions that can be placed in an Order of Protection is that the respondent (the person against whom the Order is issued) is forbidden from stalking the petitioner (the victim, or person who sought the Order). The type of activity that constitutes stalking could be defined differently by different people, but Tennessee has made stalking a criminal offense in T.C.A. § 39-17-315 and has defined what type of activity constitutes “stalking” within that very statute.
Stalking is defined in the Tennessee Code as a “a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.” Thus, the Tennessee legislature has basically defined stalking in the same way most people would define such activity. Normally, stalking is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to eleven months and twenty-nine days in jail. However, the existence of an order of protection can increase a person’s period of incarceration dramatically.
Even though an order of protection is technically a civil order, it is being discussed on this criminal law blog because it can have substantial criminal repercussions. The stalking statute demonstrates exactly how this happens. While stalking is usually a Class A Misdemeanor, the offense can be upgraded to aggravated stalking, and the penalty increased to a Class E felony if certain factors are present. One of those factors is that the person charged with stalking “was prohibited from making contact with the victim under a restraining order or injunction for protection, an order of protection, or any other court-imposed prohibition of conduct toward the victim or the victim's property, and the person knowingly violates the injunction, order or court-imposed prohibition.” Thus, the mere presence of an Order of Protection increases the penalty for stalking substantially, as a Class E felony is punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of $3,000. To avoid situations like this, Tennesseans who are charged with stalking or aggravated staling, or are respondents to an order of protection that they feel is unfair, should contact an experienced East Tennessee attorney who can assist them with their case.
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