WHEN STARS BECOME TARGETS.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

A celebrity steps out of a trendy restaurant and is met by a pack of paparazzi clicking away and fans thrusting autograph books, glossy photos and markers at her.

She may thinking, ``Wow, how cool that all these people waited just to see me.'' Or she just as easily could be thinking, ``Is one of them the weirdo who left dead flowers and a note outside my house this morning?''

``The big problem right now, and it will be from now on, is the Internet,'' said Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Rhonda Saunders, who has prosecuted hundreds of stalking cases since 1991 and is profiled in tonight's ``Reasonable Fear'' episode of the Court TV documentary series ``The System.''

``There is so much information about everybody that if a stalker really wants to find somebody, they can,'' she said.

It was actress Rebecca Schaeffer's 1989 murder in the doorway of her apartment at the hands of a crazed fan that brought stalking into the headlines and prompted state lawmakers to make it a felony. Saunders argued for the penal code revision on behalf of victims.

``I wanted to make a first-time stalking a felony so people would take it seriously. Back in 1991, unless there was a restraining order, it was a misdemeanor,'' Saunders said. ``And victims a lot of times are afraid to get restraining orders because they are afraid that that would cause the stalker to actually carry out the threats.''

In 1994, Congress passed the Driver's Privacy Protection Act, forbidding states from releasing personal information from their Department of Motor Vehicles files without the individual's approval. Schaeffer's killer, Robert John Bardo, learned her home address from California DMV records.

That seems in hindsight to have been only a partial remedy. Web sites advertising their ability to ``find anyone, anywhere'' work very well, making it harder for victims to hide, whether they are celebrities or not.

Saunders said she paid a Web site's $25 fee to look up information on a victim from an old case, just before the convicted stalker was being released from prison. ``It's amazing. If you have a magazine subscription, the magazines sell your information to these Web sites, or if you have any type of property in your name.

``Years ago if a stalker really wanted to find someone, they'd have to spend weeks or months going through paperwork at the assessor's office. Now they go online and within a minute they can get the information.''

In response to another alarming trend, the state law was amended in 1997 to include electronic stalking, covering unwanted contact via e-mail, wired and wireless phones, pagers and high-tech forms of communication not yet on the market.

Three years ago, Saunders won the conviction of Marlon Pagtakhan, who stalked actress Jeri Ryan, then a star of ``Star Trek: Voyager,'' with threatening e-mails sent to her Paramount Studios address. Pagtakhan thought he was immune from prosecution because he never directly approached Ryan or her boyfriend, producer Brannon Bragga, who also was named in the threats, but he was wrong.

``His whole thing was, well, he never left Northern California,'' Saunders said. ``He didn't have to, because the effects she felt, and the threats against Brannon Bragga - that he was going to crush his cranium and put him in front of a hot fire - were (felt) here in Los Angeles.''

The law defines stalking as two or more incidents of following or harassment.

``We also have to show specific intent to place the victim in fear. It's a crime of mental terrorism, pretty much,'' Saunders said. ``We don't have to show that they intend to carry out the threat, that they have a knife or a gun or a bomb - only that they're trying to terrorize the victim and they have succeeded and the victim is afraid for themselves or their family.''

Industry insiders say the heightened security surrounding Hollywood awards shows in recent years is as much about keeping dangerous fans away as it is preventing acts of terrorism.

Dennis Bridwell, a partner in Sherman Oaks-based Galahad Protective Services, says his company focuses on educating its high-profile clients on how to protect themselves and head off stalking before it begins. He sees it as especially important for up-and-comers who don't think of themselves as superstars in the making.

``They say, 'I really want to send signed photographs back to my fans. The fans put me where I am,' '' Bridwell said. ``And we discourage them from doing that. We say, 'No, you made it happen, with your record label or the studio and your publicist and your agent - give the credit there.'

``The reason why these cases develop from something innocuous - from asking for a photograph - to an obsession is a perceived connection.''

He said once stalking begins, his clients often expect an immediate solution. ``It's a take-a-pill-and-make-it-better society. They want you to go and do something. And sometimes doing something is the wrong thing.''

``The majority of cases, especially high-profile cases, are not handled with prosecution,'' Saunders said. ``They're handled through other types of intervention such as using the mental health system, restraining orders. Sometimes just an intervention with a police officer showing up on somebody's doorstep - especially if they have something to lose like a job or a wife or something - it works.''

Years ago the studios' security staff shielded their stars from knowing about strange visitors and the eerie gifts they left behind. But now they are much more inclined to screen packages and advise the celebrities for their own safety.

``You sometimes get letters, which I think all people on TV get,'' said Brad Garrett of ``Everybody Loves Raymond.'' ``There was once a person who would write in a circle and start very small. Or you get those letters from people who think you belong together.

``We all get that scary stuff. But nowadays Warner Bros. really pretty much checks everything before it goes to you. Their security here is so incredibly hands-on that you feel very safe.''

The Stalking and Threat Assessment Team (STAT) of the District Attorney's Office has been downsized because of budget constraints. Saunders is now assigned to the appellate division. But she remains active in the stalking field as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, which meets regularly for confidential discussions of cases and crime prevention methods.

``The reason I got into it was when I started meeting these victims and saw the human damage that was done,'' she said. ``Maybe I'm a softie. My heart went out to them. I still keep in touch with many of the victims in cases that go back 10, 12 years, just so they know that if something happens they have somebody on their side.''

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

valerie.kuklenski(at)dailynews.com

THE SYSTEM: REASONABLE FEAR

What: A look at one L.A. prosecutor's experience with stalkers of celebrities and nonfamous people.

Where: Court TV.

When: 10 tonight.

Are you a potential target?

Celebrities grab the headlines, but regular citizens can be victims of stalkers as well, often harassed or terrorized by someone they know.

When country singer Barbara Mandrell threatened legal action against a stalker who found her Nashville house, he went home to Minnesota and began pursuing a woman he knew from childhood. A man on California's Death Row stabbed and slashed his wife to death on Angeles Crest Highway as she was leaving him. He had found her at her sister's home, and she was on her way out of town after filing for divorce.

The Internet has made it easier for stalkers to find and make contact with their victims. It also is useful in determining whether you may be a target of such a crime. Here's how you can learn whether you or a family member is being discussed in public areas of the Internet:

--Go to www.google.com and type in your name and click ``search'' to search for any references to you on Web pages. Look at the results to see if any of them relate to you.

--Keeping your name in the search window, click on the ``images'' tab to search for any pictures on the Web that might relate to you.

--Keeping your name in the search window, click on the ``groups'' tab to search for any possible references to you in Usenet groups.

--Go back to the ``web'' tag. Now enter your area code and phone number and then click ``search.'' Check the results to see if any of them relate to you.

--Keeping your area code and phone number in the search window, click on the ``groups'' tab. Check the results to see if any of them relate to you.

Source: www.cyber-stalking.net

- V.K.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) `REASONABLE FEAR'

Deputy District Attorney Rhonda Saunders targets stalkers

Tina Gerson/Staff Photographer

(2) Madonna's stalker, Robert Hoskins, above, is due to be released on parole soon. The District Attorney's Office is asking that he undergo a mental evaluation, which could result in him serving his parole in a locked-down psychiatric facility.

(3 -- 4) The 1989 murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer, right, led to the classification of stalking as a felony in California. The law has provided recourse for celebrities such as Jeri Ryan, top, whose stalker was convicted three years ago.

(5) Jonathan Norman, above, was convicted in March 1998 for stalking director Steven Spielberg.

(6) Robert John Bardo, below, obtained Schaeffer's home address from the DMV. In 1994, Congress passed a law prohibiting states from releasing such information.

(7) Actress Theresa Saldana testifies in the trial of Arthur Jackson, who nearly stabbed her to death in 1982. Saldana went on to establish the support group Victims for Victims.

Daily News

Box:

Are you a potential target? (see text)

-V.K.