Miley’s Stalker Problems Continue
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Miley Cyrus is seen here on the set of her latest movie ‘The Last Song’ where she is filming a romantic scene with her co-star Liam Hemsworth. This new project of hers is a Disney film based on the Nicholas Sparks nove of the same name, and Miley and Liam have been very busy in Savanna, Georgia filming this eagerly anticipated work. But though she looks like a smiley Miley here, behind the scenes things are getting a little more serious, as it sounds like Miley has been having some problems with a stalker. Her stalker, 53 year old Mark McLeod, has already been charged, but it sounds like he’s getting a little nuttier as time passes. He recently told an investigator on the case that he planned on returning to her Georgia movie set and “finishing things,” according to what Miley’s bodyguard told a judge just the other day. He didn’t really clarify what ‘finishing things’ meant, but because it sounds like crazy talk, people around her are a little worried. As such, municipal Court Judge Steven Scheer refused a request to lower Mark McLeod’s $55,200 bond and ruled there was sufficient evidence to send the case to Chatham County State Court. Scheer said he felt McLeod had no chance of getting to the 16-year-old “Hannah Montana” star because she “can afford the best protection money can buy,” but he feared McLeod might be a threat to others. While Miley has been busy filming “The Last Song” on Tybee Island and in neighbouring Savannah. Police say McLeod came to the island twice, once in June, then again this month asking where he could find her. As the story goes, Robert Merriman, a former Savannah-Chatham County police detective hired by Walt Disney Pictures to protect Cyrus, testified that McLeod made a taped statement to a sheriff’s investigator in Columbia County, where he was arrested at his home Aug. 4.
“He said that he knew the filming was going to be ending soon and he was going to be coming back to Tybee Island and finishing things,” said Merriman, who told the judge that he interpreted the comment as a threat.
James Byrne, McLeod’s defence attorney, said McLeod is an unemployed assistant plumber and will likely remain in jail because he cannot afford bond. All charges against him are misdemeanours.
“He’s been kind of painted as this monster, but he’s got a family. He’s not a danger. What he said I understand was unsettling to a lot of folks … but it doesn’t make him a stalker.”
Uh, how do you figure? Because the term ‘finishing things’ is more than a little unsettling, it’s the kind of things that stalkers say actually when they can’t get their own way. Add to the fact that police say McLeod told an officer he was engaged to marry Cyrus and she sent him secret messages through her TV show after his first arrest June 22 on charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of a police officer. But that doesn’t make him a stalker either, I suppose. This first incident occurred when a Tybee Island police officer Javier Valdez said he arrested McLeod after approaching him about complaints that McLeod was bothering young girls gathered near the set. He testified that McLeod refused to leave and began cursing, prompting police to arrest and handcuff him. McLeod was released from jail and returned to Tybee Island earlier this month. Merriman said security officers saw him going door-to-door at homes near the film crew’s base camp asking residents where Cyrus was staying. He was arrested again, on attempted stalking charges, a few days later. Prosecutor Jennifer Guyer told the judge that McLeod had a previous arrest in 2003 on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor when he illegally transported a girl across the Georgia-South Carolina state line. Yep, this guy is a wingnut. And a stalker. But it sounds like the people that need to be are on top of it, but we’ll send happy safe vibes out to Miley all the same.
Photo: Bret Thompset pacificcoastnews.
