Criminal Law & Procedure: Criminal Offenses: Crimes Against the Person: Stalking & Intimidation

A person commits the offense of harassment when he or she performs any of the following acts with the intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another person: (1) when he or she initiates a communication with the other person by telephone, in writing, or electronically and makes an obscene comment or suggestion; (2) when he or she threatens by telephone, in writing, or electronically to inflict bodily injury on the other person or to commit a felony against the other person, a member of his or her family, or his or her property; (3) when he or she conveys a false report to the other person that another person has died or has been seriously injured; (4) when he or she causes the other person's telephone to ring repeatedly, when he or she repeatedly telephones the other person, or when he or she fails to hang up the telephone; or (5) when he or she sends repeated electronic communications to the other person.
When a person threatens another person by telephone, in writing, or electronically to inflict bodily injury on the other person or to commit a felony against the other person or his or her family, the threats of bodily injury do not need to be directly expressed. The threats may include statements that imply injury to the other person. The issue is whether the threats would cause apprehension by a reasonable person and not whether the threats caused the other person to become apprehensive.
An obscene comment or suggestion for the purpose of the offense of harassment means an offensive description of an ultimate sexual act or a description of an excretory function. Although the words "ultimate sex act" mean more than mere sexual activity, they do not need to contain explicit language regarding the ultimate sexual act.
Electronic communications for the purpose of the offense of harassment mean any signal or data that is transmitted by wire or by radio and may include communications that are sent by electronic mail, instant messaging, facsimiles, or pagers.
In order to find a defendant guilty of the offense of harassment, the prosecution must prove that the defendant was the person who initiated the communication to another person. The prosecution may identify the defendant's voice or may connect the communication with the defendant's residence. However, access by other persons to the defendant's residence may be used as a defense.
In order to find a defendant guilty of the offense of harassment, the prosecution must also prove that the defendant acted with the intent to perform any of the above-described acts.
The offense of harassment is normally punished as a misdemeanor.
A person commits the offense of stalking when he or she on more than one occasion and under the same course of conduct knowingly engages in conduct that he or she knows or has reason to know that another person will consider as a threat of bodily injury or death to the other person or a member of his or her family or household. A person also commits the offense of stalking when he or she causes the other person or a member of the other person's family or household to be placed in fear of bodily injury, death, or damage to the other person's property. A person further commits the offense of stalking when he or she causes a reasonable person to fear bodily injury to himself or herself or to a member of the person's family or household.
Stalking means something more than merely annoying or alarming another person. In order for a defendant to be found guilty of the offense of stalking, the defendant must cause the other person to fear bodily injury or death.
The offense of stalking is normally punished as a felony.
 

Source: Law Office of Dayan & Associates