The Reporter (Lansdale, PA)

Police: Man faces charges for stalking woman again

- By Michael Goldberg mgoldberg@21st-centurymed­ia.com @mg_thereporte­r on Twitter

HATFIELD BOROUGH >> A 30-yearold Hatfield man previously arrested in the spring for allegedly stalking his ex-girlfriend has been taken into custody again after he tried to break into the same woman’s residence, police say.

Jesse Wayne Shainline, of the 2400 block of Orvilla Road, is behind bars in county jail and facing 11 criminal counts, including felony burglary, stalking and criminal trespassin­g charges, as well as misdemeano­r counts of harassment, resisting arrest and

related charges.

Police said in an affidavit of probable cause that around 6 a.m. on July 23, cops were dispatched to the

woman’s Hatfield Borough residence for a reported attempted burglary, and spoke to a witness who observed Shainline trying to speak with the woman through a rear window of the residence, then chased Shainline away from the area.

The woman told cops

that she had been in bed when she heard a noise and saw that Shainline — against whom she had an active Protection from Abuse (PFA) order since March, barring him from any contact with her or being near her residence — had pushed an air conditioni­ng

unit in the window into her home in an attempt to gain entry, according to court documents.

She also told police that she had received 47 calls from Shainline’s cellphone number in the approximat­ely eight hours before he tried to get into her residence, the affidavit states.

Officers searching the area soon located Shainline, who fled after cops told him he was under arrest but was captured after a brief foot chase, according to police. Shainline had in his possession a “Jaw Jacker” — a hard plastic version of brass knuckles — when he was taken into custody, court documents indicate.

Shainline was arraigned before District Judge Paul Leo, who set bail at $50,000.

A preliminar­y hearing in Lansdale district court is set for Aug. 5. At the time of his arrest, Shainline was free on $10,000 unsecured bail and awaiting trial on stalking and other charges in connection with a series of incidents in March involving the same victim.

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed in that case, the woman went to police on March 23 after being woken up around 6:30 a.m. by what sounded like the clicking sound of a camera outside the window of her residence. She immediatel­y

suspected Shainline — her former boyfriend against whom she had a temporary Protection from Abuse order at that time, court documents indicate — but did not see him or his vehicle outside.

During the ensuing investigat­ion, police viewed a photo shown to them by a third party who said they received it from Shainline — the photo was of his ex-girlfriend asleep in her bed and appeared to have been taken outside her window, and text messages to the third party that accompanie­d the image implicated Shainline as the photograph­er, according to the affidavit.

Police said that in midMarch they had ordered Shainline to cease all contact with the woman after he allegedly called her cellphone numerous times over a short period of time — the affidavit indicates that the woman showed investigat­ors a call log from March 12 when he allegedly called her 53 times between 2:31 a.m. and 3:57 a.m., and that he’d done something similar on March 15, prompting police to tell him they were going to issue him a citation for harassment. The woman said that he had continued to call her even after the police warning, according to court documents.

The affidavit also indicates that on March 11, Hatfield

police were dispatched to the woman’s residence after she reported someone tapping on her window. In the wake of the subsequent incidents, the woman told authoritie­s that it was Shainline who had been at her window and that he had come back to her window after cops left and tried to talk to her, and though she was scared she didn’t call police again “because she did not want to see Mr. Shainline get into trouble and he left after she refused to answer back,” court documents state.

Shainline denied being outside the woman’s window on March 23 but claimed that he had taken the photo of her one early morning approximat­ely two weeks earlier, and he admitted sending the photo to the third party who later provided it to police, according to court documents.

Shainline also admitted to the March 11 incident and acknowledg­ed trying to contact the woman after police had told him not to on March 15, but he denied going to her residence after March 11, the affidavit indicates.

The woman told police at that time that she “has suffered a lack of sleep, depression, anxiety and fear as a result of Mr. Shainline’s ongoing conduct,” according to court documents.

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