FILE - Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) plays against the Dallas Wings in the second half of a WNBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
Republished January 13, 2025 - 2:19 PM
Original Publication Date January 13, 2025 - 11:41 AM
Authorities in Indianapolis have charged a 55-year-old Texas man with felony stalking of Indiana Fever star and WNBA rookie of the year Caitlin Clark.
Michael Thomas Lewis is accused of repeated and continued harassment of the 22-year-old Clark beginning on Dec. 16, the Marion County prosecutor's office wrote in a court filing 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 plays home games — three times 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 terrorized, 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.
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 downtown public library.
Indianapolis police spoke with Lewis on Jan. 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 didn't mean any harm and that he fantasized 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 traveled 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 ahead of trial. Prosecutors requested that Lewis be ordered to stay away from the Gainbridge and Hinkle fieldhouses where the Fever play home games.
The Associated Press was unable to determine Monday if Lewis has a lawyer who can comment on his behalf.
Fever officials have not responded to an Associated Press request for comment.
The Associated Press named Clark the Female Athlete of the Year for 2024. After leading Iowa to last year's national championship game, she was the top pick in the WNBA draft and went on to win rookie of the year honors in the league.
News from © The Associated Press, 2025