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Man convicted of stalking Uma Thurman
2008-05-07
A New York jury convicted a former mental patient of stalking actress Uma Thurman on Tuesday and a judge ordered him held for a psychiatric evaluation. Jack Jordan, 37, was accused of sending harassing e-mails to Thurman's father and brother, loitering for hours on the steps of Thurman's Manhattan apartment and visiting her trailer on the set of the 2006 film, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend." He was convicted of stalking and aggravated harassment, for which he faces a maximum of one year in prison, and was cleared of two other counts of aggravated harassment. New York Criminal Court Judge Gregory Carro ordered Jordan remanded into custody for psychiatric evaluation and declined a request by Jordan's lawyer to have him placed in protective custody. The jury deliberated for a day after hearing the closing arguments on Monday. Thurman, whose film credits also include the "Kill Bill" movies and "Pulp Fiction," testified during the five-day trial that she was "completely freaked out" by Jordan's actions and feared for her life and the safety of her two children. Jordan's lawyer, George Vomvolakis, said his client loved Thurman and was obsessed by her but that his behavior was merely "creepy," not criminal. "I was trying to, in a misguided way, get her to meet me ... while adhering to the law as well as her privacy as best as I could," Jordan testified during the trial. "I was very respectfully trying to make my existence known to her," he said. The actress' mother, Nena Thurman, said Jordan called her home in Woodstock, New York, and sent about 20 e-mails from 2005 to 2007 to her husband, Robert Thurman, a professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University. Jordan's parents had him committed to a mental institution after he gave one of Thurman's assistants a cartoon of a razor blade and a picture of a bride without a head. Jordan said he thought the images were funny and he hoped to endear himself to Thurman. He later came to New York and made repeated trips to Thurman's apartment, which he identified from an Internet photo. Jordan will be sentenced on June 2. (Editing by Daniel Trotta)
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