A Los Angeles County court granted pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter a temporary restraining order Monday against a man she alleges has been stalking her and tried to get into her home.
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The court prohibited William Applegate, 31, from being within 100 yards of Carpenter or her sister Sarah Carpenter and the latter’s partner, who also live in the Hollywood Hills home, according to Monday’s order.
Carpenter filed a request for a civil harassment restraining order against Applegate in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday. The request alleges Applegate went up to Carpenter’s front door and tried to forcibly open it on May 23, an escalation of alleged stalking behavior that had been occurring at least around April 20.
“His pattern of stalking, trespassing, and surveillance has caused me severe and ongoing emotional distress, and I am in fear [of] what he may do if he is not restrained by his Court,” Carpenter wrote in her declaration requesting the restraining order.
NBC News was unable to find contact information for Applegate on Monday, and it was unclear whether he has a lawyer. The Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The request alleges Applegate tried to open Carpenter’s front door on May 23. When a security guard confronted him, Applegate struck the man, according to a declaration in support of the restraining order from a Los Angeles police detective.
Images from a Ring security camera show a man, whom the restraining order request identifies as Applegate, at Carpenter’s front door and being confronted by a security guard with a flashlight.
According to court documents, the security guard told Applegate to leave, but he refused and said that he knew Carpenter and that she was expecting him, a claim the documents called “outrageous and entirely false.”
Applegate refused to leave until police officers arrived, according to the detective, a threat management expert. The detective wrote that Applegate “developed a disturbing and irrational fixation on” Carpenter.
After he was arrested on suspicion of trespassing, a misdemeanor, the man returned to the neighborhood the next two days, Carpenter said in her declaration.
He parked his Toyota Prius nearby and reclined his seat so it was more difficult to see him, she said, while he conducted what she alleged was “deliberate surveillance” and “harassment.” He left once police officers responded, Carpenter said.
After that, Carpenter’s security personnel determined the man had been parking in the neighborhood and getting “progressively closer” to her home since roughly April 20, according to the request.
“His delusional insistence that he knows me and was expected by me is indicative of a dangerous, delusional, and irrational fixation on me,” Carpenter wrote in her declaration.
The restraining order also covers Carpenter’s workplace and vehicle and says Applegate may not harass, intimidate, threaten, contact or stalk her.
The police department submitted its case for trespassing and other allegations from the May 23 incident to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office so it can determine whether charges should be filed, the police detective wrote in his declaration supporting a restraining order. A court hearing for that matter is scheduled for June 18, he said.
