Legal Question in Sexual Harassment in Virginia
Please help me!
The man I'm describing is dangerous. He has harrassed me
before, and I have tried to ignore him, and now he has a stolen
tape of me having sex when I was underage. He's blackmailing
me for it, he's showing it at parties, he's made copies and is trying
to sell them. He has verbally abused me, threatened to hit me, and
broken my already-fragile self-esteem for two years. No one can
seem to stop him and I can't seem to get rid of him. I want my tape
back so I can destroy it, I want him out of my life, and honestly, I
want something for my suffering. Please, this is still happening,
the police were here tonight and say there's nothing they can do,
can someone help me?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Please help me!
You would appear to have a claim for the return of the tape (and all copies)and could initiate an action for such by filing a Warrant in Detinue in the general district court for the return of your property.
You may also have a cause of action for defamation
(his showing the tape to others)against this odious character. However, many more facts would be needed in order to clarify this.
If this character has threatened to strike you, that could be enough for a charge of assault(placing you in fear of imminent bodily harm). Also, criminal stalking laws might also be implicated in this situation.
However, if, as you say, the police have already been to your place and they claim "there's nothing they can do", then you simply haven't described the alleged illegal conduct sufficently to them or in fact, if you have done so, it simply(in their view) doesn't rise to the threshhold of a crime having probable cause.