Police Beat: Man accused of stalking ex-wife via text messages
Submitted by Howard Owens on January 6, 2010 - 10:40am
Jeffery Owen Coats, 45, of 10553 Bethany Center Road, Bethany, is charged with stalking 4th. Coats is accused to sending text messages to his ex-wife after State Police ordered him to stop texting her.
A 16-year-old from Batavia has been charged with menacing 2nd. The boy is accused of brandishing a large kitchen knife during a domestic dispute.
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January 6, 2010 - 1:59pm
#2
Since when do State Troopers issue restraining orders? Isn't that the Court's job? They might find him guilty of "Texting with intent to commit Tweets" but charging him with stalking is a real stretch. Cell phones are like televisions, they have that off button for a reason.
January 7, 2010 - 11:32am
#3
Yes they have an off button --- but why should a person have to put up with harrassment on the phone that they pay for -- why should they have to shut theirs off to please the stalker? I think a number can be blocked though.
January 7, 2010 - 12:30pm
#4
Back when I was at GateHouse there was a jerk of a vendor who signed me up without my authorization to one of his text services. He only did it because I had already told him I would never do business with him because he was such a jerk. When a particular high school football team in Texas played games, I would get flooded with IMs on the progress of the game. I forget how I did it, but I was able to block IMs from coming from that particular source.
So, yes, you can block people from texting you.
January 7, 2010 - 1:06pm
#5
I don’t want to make a huge issue out of this, but I would like to point out that getting impersonal annoying calls or texts is a bit different from being harassed and possibly threatened by an ex-boyfriend or ex-husband. I’d be willing to bet that stalkers have a wide range of techniques, and texting is just one of them.
January 7, 2010 - 1:17pm
#6
difference between a TV and cell phone is the cell phone receives all those text messages that are stored and waiting on the network
