Posted on 09/02/2010 9:40:11 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
REGINA — A woman who has been stalked for 35 years says she was "ecstatic" to learn that the man harassing her would be banished from the city of Regina for a year — even though she is certain it will be only a temporary reprieve.
"He doesn't get it. He won't get it," said Cathy Kaip. "He will continue for as long as he's breathing. Thirty-five years is a pretty good indication he's not going to quit."
Gerald Klein began stalking Kaip after the two met at a wedding in 1974 and dated briefly. Throughout the past 36 years, Klein has followed and harassed Kaip and members of her family, sent her reams of cards, flowers and gifts, tracked her to other cities when she tried to escape him, and subjected her to a series of nuisance lawsuits and legal proceedings.
He served three years in prison for criminal harassment, and, upon his release, was subject to conditions barring him from contacting Kaip or her family, or being in the area around her house.
After that order expired, the Crown had applied for a new peace bond, which Judge Dennis Fenwick granted earlier this week. In imposing the order, Fenwick had questioned whether it was fair that Kaip should have to be a prisoner in a small area of the city, while Klein is allowed to move freely everywhere else.
Kaip said she has often thought the same thing.
"There's my little area that I've been enclosed in, and sometimes I'm walking my dog along the border thinking, 'This is as far as I can go.' He has the rest of the city, and I have to stay in these borders if I want to stay semi-safe," she said. "He has the whole city."
But Fenwick said the time had come "that the worry should fall on him, and not her," and imposed a condition that Klein not be in the city of Regina for a year, except in the case of a medical emergency.
"She can have Regina and he can have the rest of the world," Fenwick said.
There is legal precedent to bar someone from their home community, although it is relatively rare. Klein is unemployed, and does not own property in the city.
Kaip said Fenwick's decision will buy her a year's reprieve, and for that time at least, "he doesn't have to be on my mind constantly."
But she will also be asking politicians to change the law so long-term stalkers could be subjected to peace bonds longer than a year, which is the maximum under the current provisions of the Criminal Code.
In this case, the peace bond application was before the courts for two years before there was finally a hearing, and it is a process that is stressful for Kaip — especially knowing that it will likely begin again 12 months from now.
"In a condition like this where there is a long-term offence and it drags on and on, and he's not going to change on his own, make this peace bond last forever," she said. "Make it for five years or 10 years. Give me more than a year to recuperate before I have to do this again."
In his decision, Fenwick recognized that Klein is able to harass Kaip even through the court process, and that "when Mr. Klein loses, he still wins."
During her testimony in June, Kaip described being paralyzed with fear when she learned Klein was subpoenaing her to testify. Fenwick ultimately allowed Kaip to testify by video so she would not have to be in the same room with Klein.
"He wants me to tell the world I'm so much in love with him, that I wanted to marry him but my dad wouldn't allow it. My dad has been dead nearly 30 years," she said. "If I wanted to be with (Klein), I would be with him... But that didn't happen, and do you know why that didn't happen? Because I'm not interested. All I want is for him to leave me alone."
Klein now has three weeks to get out of the city, and Kaip says she will be laying low in the days to come. She has had to go into hiding in the past, and she says she has plans in place to "just kind of fall off the face of the earth for a little bit" if she needs to.
She is also resigned to the fact that the situation will not end any time soon.
"I'm going to always have to deal with this," she says. "This guy is not going away."
So much for the theory that opposites attract!/s;)
Doesn’t she have any male relatives that can work this guy over, to help him get over his problem?
“He will continue for as long as he’s breathing...”
Sometimes the problems solve themselves - sometimes not.
And of course her arming herself, and taking this guy out if necessary, would land rer in jail.
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180 gr SPBT over 42.5 grs IMR 4895---$2.00
Shovel-------------------------------$12.00
Feeling of relief that this POS no longer breates the same air that you do--------------------------Priceless
She needs to move to a place like Texas, where she is able to defend herself.
If only there is some way to really get a GPS onto this guy that he can’t take off. Then, everybody will know exactly where he is, at all times. The ACLU wouldn’t allow it.
They don’t do that in Canada!
After 36 years, why not just marry him?
She can’t be trying too hard to solve this problem if she puts up with it for 35 years. She’s had plenty of options here.
Having a real stalker would creep me out so much, that I would seriously consider eliminating the stalker.
She must have had some powerful nookie to screw the guy’s head up like this.
Poor woman. Being stalked has to be hell on earth.
Leni
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