Stalking bill expected to be reintroduced BY REBECCA MORTON Staff Writer Although it received last-minute unanimous passage in the lame duck state Assembly with an 80-0 vote, bill A- 4354, which sought to increase the penalties and alter the definition of stalking, died due to lack of time and a lack of action in the state Senate. The billwas introduced in 2007 and had to be passed by Jan. 8, the final day before the new Legislature was seated. Aspokesman at the Legislative Information and Bill Room confirmed the bill's end last week after the previous Legislative session had ended. He said because of the change in session, the bill would once again have to be presented in theAssembly and in the Senate to win approval in both houses. "Everything happens for a reason and the reason wasn't a lack of support, it (A-4354) just ran out of time," said theMarlborowomanwhose experiencewith a stalker prompted the introduction of the bill. In August, Greater Media Newspapers introduced readers to the Marlboro woman who has been stalked for 10 years. The newspaper is withholding the woman's name to protect her privacy. The legislationwas voted on in theAssembly on Jan. 7 and was introduced to the Senate that same day by Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex). The Senate referred the bill to its Judiciary Committee for review, but the Legislative session ended the next day, Jan. 8. "It was introduced so late there was no time to have it heard in a committee," said Anthony Resnick, Buono's chief of staff. Resnick confirmed that the legislation would soon be resurrected, as Buono would once again introduce the legislation in the Senate. Though she was disheartened to learn that the bill had not been put to a vote in the Senate, the Marlboro woman said she is hopeful that the unanimous approval in the Assembly is an indication of how it will do the next time around. With 23 of the bill's original sponsors still in theAssembly, including two of the primary sponsors,Assemblywoman LindaGreenstein (D-Mercer and Middlesex) and Assemblyman Eric Munoz (R-Essex, Morris, Somerset, Union), and four of the sponsors now seated in the Senate, thewoman is confident it will receive support in both houses. "I received notice that Assemblywoman Greenstein would immediately reintroduce the bill," she said. The woman said she was upset that the legislation had not become law when former AssemblymanMichael Panterwas still in office. Panter, who lost his re-election bid in November, introduced the legislation after hearing thewoman's account of her life at the hands of a stalker over the course of the last decade. Thewoman thanked Panter and his chief of staff, Bruce Shapiro, for their dedication to the legislation, working up until the very end to try to get it passed. According to the legislation, a person would be guilty of third-degree stalking if he or she purposefully or knowingly engaged in behavior that caused the victimto fear for his or her safety or suffer severe emotional distress. The third-degree crime of stalking would carry penalties of up to $15,000 in fines and five years in prison. In addition to the above penalties, if a person stalks in violation of an existing court order prohibiting that behavior, repeats instances of stalking the same victim, stalks while serving a term of imprisonment or on parole or probation and stalks a victim who is a minor, the stalker would be subject to a mandatoryminimumtermof sixmonths' imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The legislation would also broaden the definition of "course of conduct" to include harassment bymeans other than personal contact and contact by telephone. January is designated asNational Stalking Awareness Month, according to the National Center for Victims of CrimesWeb site. They report that approximately 1 million women and 400,000men are victims of stalking in the country annually. The center also states that anyone can be stalked. The vastmajority of stalking victims are ordinary people and most stalkers are not strangers but are known by their victims.