Maine

Stalking

This page lists the most applicable state crimes addressing stalking. However, depending on the facts of the case, a stalker might also be charged with other crimes, such as trespassing, intimidation of a witness, breaking and entering, etc. Check your state code or consult with your local prosecutor about other charges that might apply in a particular case.

• § 210-A. Stalking 

Harassment

 

• § 506-A. Harassment

• § 506. Harassment by telephone

Related Offenses

• § 210. Terrorizing

• § 511. Violation of privacy

Analyzing Stalking Laws

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Stalking

17-A M.R. § 210-A. Stalking. (2007)

1. A person is guilty of stalking if:
   1. The actor intentionally or knowingly engages in a course of conduct directed at or concerning a specific person that would cause a reasonable person:

                                                        (1)       To suffer serious inconvenience or emotional distress;

                                                        (2)      To fear bodily injury or to fear bodily injury to a close relation;

                                                        (3)      To fear death or to fear the death of a close relation;

                                                        (4)      To fear damage or destruction to or tampering with property; or

                                                        (5)      To fear injury to or the death of an animal owned by or in the possession and control of that specific person.

Violation of this paragraph is a Class D crime; or

2. [2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF); 2001, c. 383, §12 (RP).]
3. The actor violates paragraph A and has 2 or more prior convictions in this State or another jurisdiction.
   Violation of this paragraph is a Class C crime.
   For the purposes of this paragraph, "prior conviction" means a conviction for a violation of this section; Title 5, section 4659; Title 15, section 321; former Title 19, section 769; Title 19-A, section 4011; Title 22, section 4036; any other temporary, emergency, interim or final protective order; an order of a tribal court of the Passamaquoddy Tribe or the Penobscot Nation; any similar order issued by any court of the United States or of any other state, territory, commonwealth or tribe; or a court-approved consent agreement. Section 9-A governs the use of prior convictions when determining a sentence.
1. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings. "Course of conduct" means 2 or more acts, including but not limited to acts in which the actor, by any action, method, device or means, directly or indirectly follows, monitors, tracks, observes, surveils, threatens, harasses or communicates to or about a person or interferes with a person's property.
   1. "Course of conduct" also includes, but is not limited to, threats implied by conduct and gaining unauthorized access to personal, medical, financial or other identifying or confidential information.
   2. "Close relation" means a current or former spouse or domestic partner, parent, child, sibling, stepchild, stepparent , grandparent, any person who regularly resides in the household or who within the prior 6 months regularly resided in the household or any person with a significant personal or professional relationship.
   3.  [2007, c. 685, §1 (RP).]
   4. "Emotional distress" means mental or emotional suffering of the person being stalked as evidenced by anxiety, fear, torment or apprehension that may or may not result in a physical manifestation of emotional distress or a mental health diagnosis.
   5. "Serious inconvenience" means that a person significantly modifies that person's actions or routines in an attempt to avoid the actor or because of the actor's course of conduct. "Serious inconvenience" includes, but is not limited to, changing a phone number, changing an electronic mail address, moving from an established residence, changing daily routines, changing routes to and from work, changing employment or work schedule or losing time from work or a job.
2. [ 2001, c. 383, §156 (AFF); 2001, c. 383, §13 (RP) .]

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Harassment

17-A M.R. § 506-A. Harassment. (2007)

1. A person is guilty of harassment if, without reasonable cause:
   1. The person engages in any course of conduct with the intent to harass, torment or threaten another person after having been forbidden to do so by any sheriff, deputy sheriff, constable, police officer or justice of the peace or by a court in a protective order issued under Title 5, section 4654 or 4655 or Title 19-A, section 4006 or 4007 or, if the person is an adult in the custody or under the supervision of the Department of Corrections, after having been forbidden to engage in such conduct by the Commissioner of Corrections, the chief administrative officer of the facility, the correctional administrator for the region or their designees. Violation of this paragraph is a Class E crime; or
   2. The person violates paragraph A and, at the time of the harassment, the person has 2 or more prior Maine convictions under this section in which the victim was the same person or a member of that victim's immediate family or for engaging in substantially similar conduct to that contained in this paragraph in another jurisdiction. Section 9-A governs the use of prior convictions when determining a sentence. Violation of this paragraph is a Class C crime.
2. REPEALED. Laws 2001, c. 383, § 67, eff. Jan. 31, 2003.
3. For the purposes of this section, "immediate family" means spouse, parent, child, sibling, stepchild and stepparent.

17-A M.R. § 506. Harassment by telephone. (2006)

1. A person is guilty of harassment by telephone if:
   1. By means of telephone he makes any comment, request, suggestion or proposal which is, in fact, offensively coarse or obscene, without the consent of the person called;
   2. He makes a telephone call, whether or not conversation ensues, without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person at the called number;
   3. He makes or causes the telephone of another repeatedly or continuously to ring, with intent to harass any person at the called number;
   4. He makes repeated telephone calls, during which conversation
      ensues, with the intent to harass any person at the called number;
      or
   5. He knowingly permits any telephone under his control to be used
      for any purpose prohibited by this section.
2. The crime defined in this section may be prosecuted and punished in the county in which the defendant was located when he used the telephone, or in the county in which the telephone called or made to ring by the defendant was located.
3. Harassment by telephone is a Class E crime.

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Related Offenses

17-A M.R. § 210. Terrorizing. (2003)

1. A person is guilty of terrorizing if that person in fact communicates to any person a threat to commit or to cause to be committed a crime of violence dangerous to human life, against the person to whom the communication is made or another, and the natural and probable consequence of such a threat, whether or not such consequence in fact occurs, is:
   1. To place the person to whom the threat is communicated or the
      person threatened in reasonable fear that the crime will be committed. Violation of this paragraph is a Class D crime; or
   2. To cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly or facility
      of public transport or to cause the occupants of a building to be
      moved to or required to remain in a designated secured area.
      Violation of this paragraph is a Class C crime.
2. DELETED. Laws 2001, c. 383, § 11.

17-A.M.R. § 511. Violation of privacy. (2007)

1.      A person is guilty of violation of privacy if, except in the execution of a public duty or as authorized by law, that person intentionally:

A.     Commits a civil trespass on property with the intent to overhear or observe any person in a private place;

B.       Installs or uses in a private place without the consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy in that place, any device for observing, photographing, recording, amplifying or broadcasting sounds or events in that place;

C.     Installs or uses outside a private place without the consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy therein, any device for hearing, recording, amplifying or broadcasting sounds originating in that place that would not ordinarily be audible or comprehensible outside that place; or

D.     Engages in visual surveillance in a public place by means of mechanical or electronic equipment with the intent to observe or photograph, or record, amplify or broadcast an image of any portion of the body of another person present in that place when that portion of the body is in fact concealed from public view under clothing and a reasonable person would expect it to be safe from surveillance.

     1-A. It is a defense to a prosecution under subsection 1, paragraph D that the person subject to surveillance had in fact attained 14 years of age and had consented the visual surveillance.

2.      As used in this section, "private place" means a place where one may reasonably expect to be safe from surveillance, including, but not limited to, changing or dressing rooms, bathrooms and similar places.

3.      Violation of privacy is a Class D crime.

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