People v. Lopez

Angie Rizzo was 16 years old when she befriended 26-year-old Cesar Lopez (defendant). When Rizzo turned 18, Lopez groped and tried to kiss her. Rizzo started avoiding Lopez, but he relentlessly telephoned, emailed, and mailed packages to her over the years, expressing his yearning for a relationship and reconciliation, despite Rizzo’s repeated requests for him to stop. Ten years after their first meeting, Lopez revealed that he had spent eight years constructing a labyrinth in the shape of Rizzo’s face near Rizzo’s daily running route. Rizzo again asked Lopez to stop his frightening behavior, and he responded with a barrage of letters and gifts. When Lopez told Rizzo that he was coming to see her so they could have a “cleansing ceremony” at the labyrinth, Rizzo reported Lopez’s behavior to the police. Lopez agreed with the police’s instruction to leave Rizzo alone and conceded that the labyrinth and communications might have upset Rizzo. Lopez promised Rizzo he would not contact her again because he wanted her to feel safe. One day, the police spotted Lopez at the labyrinth, and they questioned him. That night, agitated about his encounter with the police, Lopez hid near Rizzo’s house in the darkness and stepped out when she walked by. Rizzo told him again to leave her alone because he was scaring her, but Rizzo repeatedly saw Lopez in her neighborhood, where he falsely claimed to live. Rizzo kept telling Lopez that he was frightening her and she wanted him to stop. Lopez said that he was sorry he scared her but that he could not accept that their relationship was over. Rizzo made a second report to the police, and Lopez was charged with stalking. The stalking statute required the prosecution to show that Lopez had willfully harassed Rizzo and made a “credible threat,” defined as a threat that was (1) verbalized or implied by a pattern of conduct, made with (2) the intent to put the victim in fear for his or her safety and (3) the apparent ability to carry out the threat, (4) causing the victim to reasonably fear for his or her safety. Lopez was convicted, and on appeal, he argued that because there was no evidence that he overtly threatened Rizzo with violence, his labyrinth and blogs were not a “credible threat.”