Plea Allows for Man to Have No Criminal Record in Anita Baker Stalking

The earlier this month was sentenced to one year of probation with several conditions Thursday in the court.

Dwon Darnell Thompson told Judge Russell Ethridge he believed the fact that he knew a famous person was the key to having his own talents recognized. He apologized and entered a plea of no contest to the more serious offense of stalking.

The plea, as outlined by prosecutor Gary Bresnehan, callled for Thompson to serve two years on probation with numerous conditions. Among the conditions is that the judge will take the plea under advisement, allowing Thompson to successfully complete probation and all of the related terms but not have a criminal record.

The under advisement status allows the judge to dismiss the case if he feels the defendent has held up the agreement of the plea.

Although the plea called for Thompson to serve two years on probation, Ethridge had to impose a one year sentence and then set a status date for October 2012, at which time the probation is likely to be continued for the second year. The one year sentence resulted because of certain legal requirements guiding how under advisement pleas are to be handled.

In addition to serving probation, Thompson must complete 24 hours of community service within 90 days, have no contact in any format with Baker or her family, may not talk about Baker directly or indirectly in any electronic or social media format, seek and maintain fulltime employment, seek and complete psychological treatment and pay $925 in various fees and costs associated with the case.

Ethridge urged Thompson to have success in probation and emphasized his need to stay away from and avoid contact with Baker. He also told Thompson he needs to learn where the social boundries lie and abide by them.

Bresnehan objected to handling the term of the probation in the manner it was saying the victim had an expectation Thompson would be serving two years rather than one. He asked the judge to impose the sentence and said he would provide a motion to dismiss the case at the end of the two years, but Ehtridge declined saying the paperwork needs to be in order and that he cannot hold a case open for years.

Thompson's court appointed attorney, Nicholas Shawver, argued in favor of just sentencing his client to one year, arguing if he does not violate probation in one year he's unlikely to do it in the second year.

Bresnehan argued against it saying there are behaviors that may take longer to remedy than one year and he wants to ensure the problem is resolved.

Bresnehan also asked the judge to admonish Thompson about random encounters considering he is seeking employment in the Village at a different location than where he was before and Baker's frequency to the Village.

Ethridge told Thompson any small issue that comes up will result in his going to jail.

"Don't make me put you in jail because I will," Ethridge said.

Another element of the plea agreement is the no-contest plea rather than a guilty plea. The no-contest plea prevents the misdemeanor case from ever being used in a civil legal case, Ethridge said.

According to the case records, Baker told police she tried to get him to leave her home repeatedly but he would not leave. After about 20 minutes she called police. Thompson, she told responding officers, had been bothering her for a few months when she ran errands in the Village.

A second charge of trespassing was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.