Stalking Law Called Too Narrow for Meg Ryan Fan

John Michael Hughes gave a simple, if incredible, explanation to sheriff’s deputies for why he broke into a Malibu house last month. His fiancee forgot to leave a key under the mat, so he had to smash the bedroom window to climb inside.

The woman Hughes calls his fiancee is actress Meg Ryan, who says she has never met the 30-year-old former real estate agent from Florida.

Hughes, who was also convicted last year of attempting to enter President Bush’s Texas ranch with firearms, reacted with disbelief when a detective told him he was not engaged to Ryan. Hughes said that no matter where in the world Ryan was, he would find her.

Though Hughes might seem like an ideal candidate for charges under California’s anti-stalking law, prosecutors say he doesn’t fit the narrow legal definition of a stalker because they cannot prove that he intended to cause fear in the actress--no matter how fearful she now is. Although the state has made great strides in the last decade in cracking down on stalkers, prosecutors say, the Hughes case highlights weaknesses that remain.

Ryan succeeded last week in getting a three-year civil restraining order against Hughes. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, meanwhile, has filed two misdemeanor counts of trespassing, which could bring a jail sentence of one year. As it turned out, the house he broke into was not Ryan’s but that of another Malibu family with the same last name.

“We can only file what we have the evidence to prove,” said Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Loni Petersen. “Hopefully [the law] will be broadened in the future.”

Hughes is behind bars awaiting trial and is scheduled to return to a Malibu courtroom Feb. 21. A judge has expressed doubts that he is mentally competent and might order psychiatric treatment before Hughes can be tried in the alleged break-in.

Even if a defendant is convicted of a stalking charge, the longest prison sentence he can receive in California is five years. After serving time, some defendants land right back on the victims’ doorsteps if they haven’t received adequate mental health treatment, psychiatrists say.

Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who has studied stalking, said at least 95% of celebrity stalkers have a diagnosable mental disorder, such as schizophrenia or erotomania, in which they have delusions of love from others.

Stalking has become so common that Dietz said virtually all celebrities have stalkers, even if they don’t know it.

Celebrities often try to fend off stalkers with complex security systems, bodyguards and fan mail screeners. The average celebrity stalker begins by writing as many as a dozen letters before attempting to visit the star, Dietz said.

The murder of sitcom star Rebecca Schaeffer in Los Angeles in 1989 by an obsessive fan helped set in motion the first anti-stalking legislation in the country. The state law made stalking a misdemeanor but required the defendant to have the “intent of instilling fear or death or serious injury.”

First-Time Stalking Is Now a Felony

Since then, California’s law has been strengthened to allow first-time stalking to be charged as a felony and broadened to make the intent to place the victim “in reasonable fear for his or her safety.” The law has also been expanded to include stalking a victim’s family.

When prosecutors don’t have enough to prove a stalking charge, they often file other charges, such as burglary or assault. Or as in the Hughes case, they file an aggravated trespassing charge, which includes referral for mental health counseling and a longer jail sentence and probation period than a regular trespassing charge. They may also work with the county mental health department, which can detain suspects if they are a danger to themselves or others.

Prosecutors use the law for non-celebrity stalkers, many of whom are obsessed with former friends or spouses.

In some cases where the anti-stalking law is employed, proof of intent to place victims in fear is not difficult. Film director Steven Spielberg’s stalker went to his Pacific Palisades home at least four times in 1997 before being arrested with duct tape, a box cutter and handcuffs in his possession. Jonathan Norman was found guilty of stalking and sentenced to 25 years to life under the three-strikes law.

A stalking case involving Madonna was even clearer, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Rhonda Saunders, who helped write the law and its revisions. In 1995, a homeless man showed up at the singer’s home repeatedly and threatened to kill her, her assistant and her bodyguard.

On one occasion, Robert Dewey Hoskins lunged at the bodyguard and tried to grab his gun after scaling the wall of Madonna’s estate. He was convicted of stalking, making terrorist threats and assaulting the bodyguard, and sentenced to 10 years in state prison on the multiple charges.

Evidence of Intent Is Not Found

In the case of Hughes, prosecutors say, they have not found evidence that shows that he intended to place Ryan in fear for her safety.

Hughes’ quest to see Ryan apparently began in December 2000, shortly before he appeared at the front gate of Bush’s ranch in Texas and asked to see him. Hughes was arrested after authorities found four high-powered weapons, including a pistol and a rifle, in his rental car.

Hughes was treated in a federal prison hospital before being deemed competent to stand trial, where he pleaded guilty to unlawful attempted entry to the residence of the then-president-elect. He was sentenced to six months in prison, time he had already served at the hospital.

Before his Texas foray, Hughes had sent an e-mail to Ryan’s manager, according to court papers.

After leaving the Texas hospital, Hughes hired a retired FBI agent in Florida and a Los Angeles private investigator to find Ryan’s address, according to her security consultant. In early January, Hughes packed his passport and almost $3,000 in cash and drove from Florida to see her, documents filed in Superior Court said.

On Jan. 6, Hughes drove to a Malibu address with a night vision scope, directions to the house and a magazine cover story on Ryan, police said. He grabbed his silver flashlight, broke the window, climbed in and then spent the day at the house, the documents said.

Hughes allegedly ate two meals, threw away a book on Jacqueline Onassis and several full cans of beer and rearranged the outdoor furniture so he could lie by the pool while he waited for Ryan.

But instead of Meg Ryan, Tomas and Andrea Ryan, who are not related to the actress, came back to their home after a wedding to discover an intruder, dressed in black and wearing a fishing cap. They called the sheriff’s department, which arrested Hughes and notified Ryan’s security consultant.

Meg Ryan, star of such films as “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” received a temporary restraining order in January, which was extended last week. Ryan’s attorney said he was satisfied that the judge ordered Hughes to stay at least 150 yards from the star.

“We’re just hoping that it stops now,” attorney Michael Plonsker said.

During the Feb. 4 hearing in Santa Monica Superior Court, Hughes represented himself and told the judge that a rabbi had informally married the couple in Vancouver, Canada. Hughes said he needed a few hours with Ryan to patch up problems.

“Meg is a little upset with me,” he said. “She has been upset with me for some time now.”

Ryan, however, submitted a declaration to the court saying that she has never met John Hughes. His actions, she wrote, “are alarming and have caused me to be concerned and fearful for my and my family’s safety.”

After the judge read her statement aloud, Hughes said he believed that Ryan was coerced. “This issue goes deep into the CIA. It goes into the NSA, it goes into the White House, and it goes into the FBI,” he said.

Suspect’s Mother Says He Has Illness

Hughes’ mother, Stephanie Hughes, said in a telephone interview that her son suffers from bipolar disorder. “I have a very warm, compassionate son,” she said. “John would never harm a flea.”

John Hughes graduated from the University of South Alabama and worked in real estate, his mother said. He bought houses, fixed them up and rented them out. Hughes married and had a son, but he split with his wife two years ago.

That was about the time that the paranoia set in, Stephanie Hughes said. “It just snuck in the door,” she said. “It just started building.”

Police said Hughes told them he had been prescribed Wellbutrin, an antidepressant, and Depakote, a mood stabilizer.

A psychiatrist who evaluated Hughes on behalf of Meg Ryan’s legal team said he was delusional and potentially dangerous. “This gentleman is brought to a courtroom, where ideally he should be brought to a psychiatric hospital,” said psychiatrist David Glaser of Encino. But Glaser said he was impressed by how articulate Hughes was in court, saying his cross-examination was as effective as that of some attorneys.

Jim Wright, a former FBI stalking expert, said disorders are not readily apparent in all stalkers who are ill. “They don’t have one eye in the middle of their foreheads,” he said. “They’re often very intelligent, very crafty people.”

Saunders said the fact that many stalkers have mental illnesses doesn’t lessen the crimes.

“The bottom line is, we can’t keep them forever and we can’t cure them,” Saunders said. “The only thing we can do to protect the victim is to take them off the streets for as long as possible.”