Man gets house arrest, probation in stalking case
A Broward man pleaded guilty Tuesday to stalking a Palm Beach County judge and received a sentence of five years of probation, court records show.
David Arthur Lerner, 37, also was ordered to serve two years of house arrest and continue mental health treatment that began after he was arrested in November for threatening Circuit Judge Howard K. Coates Jr.
Prosecutors accused Lerner, of Hollywood, of attacking Coates with harassing emails and court filings after the judge granted restraining orders barring Lerner from having any contact with his former Boca Raton housemates.
Under a plea deal approved by Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer, Lerner will avoid a felony conviction on his record for the aggravated charge.
An identical punishment was ordered for Lerner concerning two additional aggravated stalking charges brought by Boca Raton Police in November.
Those counts were based on complaints from the exroommates that Lerner used 15 different email accounts to harass them and their family members despite the restraining orders.
Lerner, a self-described cybersecurity consultant, will be allowed to serve his house arrest and probation in California, records show.
In late November, defense attorney David Roth informed the court of a plan to stalking register Lerner at a Malibu, Calif., residential treatment facility for “a full psychological and psychiatric work up” to include intense therapy and pills.
Roth then wrote his client “has never been violent and has a history of psychiatric illness going back to his early childhood,” but wasn’t taking his medications “at the time of the offenses” in the stalking cases.
Roth could not be reached for comment Tuesday despite a call to his West Palm Beach office.
Court records don’t detail Lerner’s diagnosis or the drugs.
Judge Schosberg Feuer ordered Lerner not to have any contact with his victims.
Previously, Lerner was barred from filing any more court papers or sending any more emails to Judge Coates, who is assigned to the family/probate division in civil court.