Stalking Crime of Athlete Shawn Johnson Serious for Victims

She's 17 years old, at the top of her game and lovely. But she's a victim too. The man who has been stalking her was caught and jailed. Others aren't so lucky, and Shawn Johnson hopefully will stay safe.

Shawn Johnson is a fine athlete whose athletic prowess and gymnastic skills were featured at the Olympics. The whole world seemed to applaud her skills and celebrate her lovely smile and sweet ways. She won the gold medal on the beam at the Beijing Olympics to the roar of appreciative crowds. The young Shawn has been an All-American golden girl in many ways. In high school she has been an honor roll student. She has three short stories published and hopes to be either a doctor or gymnastic instructor someday. In addition she captured hearts and votes during her time to date on Dancing with the Stars, where she has strutted with enough style to stay in the finals so far. This girl has it all, but one thing she didn't want. That's a man who stalked her continuously, putting Shawn and her family afraid he might attack or even kill her. Robert O'Ryan of Florida has been charged with stalking and carrying loaded firearms following his arrest on Monday in Los Angeles. At the time he tried to climb a fence at the CBS studios. A loaded handgun and shotgun were found in his car along with duct tape. Authorities were concerned about O'Ryan's statement that Johnson had been personally speaking to him through a television set and that he wanted to be with her no matter what he had to do. In fact, he mentioned that voices told him that she would have a child by him. On Thursday he was arraigned and now being held on $35,000 bail, although prosecutors intend to have the bail raised to $220,000. A conviction will lead to Ryan's incarceration for four years. In addition to bail a restraining order has been granted declaring that Ryan is to make no contact with Johnson. According to the National Institute of Justice stalking is a very big problem. The Institute cited a study that found that stalking is a far bigger problem than what was once thought and that it affects 1.4 million individuals yearly. The behavior is associated to controlling behavior along with emotional, physical and sexual abuse, principally against women by intimate partners, although there is a percentage of strangers who stalk victims as well. Most stalking is done by those who have known the victims. In surveys 8% of women and 2% of men have reported being stalked by someone in their lives. Most cases last less than a year. 21% of the stalkers identified by women in the study were strangers to the victims. 45% were threatened. Furthermore the consequences to victims have been found to be significant , with one third of victims needing psychological treatment, one fifth losing time from work and 7 percent who never were able to return to work. Celebrities are targeted by stalkers because they are in the news and folks can fantasize about them from images on movies and television. Richard Gere, for example, was stalked by a 51-year-old woman with four children. The woman, Reichert-Habbishaw, made her contacts to Gere by phone, fax and email approximately 1000 times, then showed up at his office in Greenwich Village at least six times. She was reported to say to Gere: “I want to be with you and share your life.” Instead of jail time the woman was sent back to Germany, but concluded her dramatic episode involving Gere by fainting just outside the courtroom when approached by cameramen. Some cases involving stalking may seem amusing on the surface, but the consequences can be frightening and sometimes fatal. For that reason authorities have been concerned about Johnson and her parents guarded about her. Sadly, her short, sweet career should be so interrupted by something so awful as stalking.