NEW YORK (AP) - Uma Thurman’s convicted stalker is trying to work out a plea deal on charges that he tried to contact her again after a judge declined Wednesday to toss out or pare down the new case.
Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro said Wednesday there was enough evidence to support the new contempt, stalking and other charges against Jack Jordan, who had been ordered to stay away from the “Pulp Fiction” actress.
Jordan’s lawyer and prosecutors said they were discussing the potential for a plea deal but haven’t reached any agreement. A psychiatric treatment program is a possibility, said Jordan’s lawyer, Sam Roberts.
In the meantime, Jordan, 39, remains jailed on $500,000 bond. He said nothing during Wednesday’s brief court hearing.
A former lifeguard and pool cleaner who studied for a master’s degree in English, Jordan has acknowledged a fixation on Thurman that began when he saw her in the 1988 movie “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.” He was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital in 2005 after being questioned about his obsession with the Academy Award-nominated “Kill Bill” star, he has said.
He was convicted in 2008 of stalking and harassing Thurman by showing up at her Manhattan home, trying to get into her trailer on a movie set, calling her family and employees and sending eerie letters with such messages as “my hands should be on your body at all times.” He was sentenced to three years’ probation and told not to try to contact her for five years.
But prosecutors say he did just that twice in October, calling some of her phone lines, demanding to speak to her and bewailing her romance with Swiss financier Arpad “Arki” Busson. Jordan called a New York police station a few days later, asking whether he was wanted by police and acknowledging he’d called Thurman’s home, according to court papers filed by prosecutors.
He was arrested in November at his family’s home in North Potomac, Md., where officers found him sitting in front of a computer screen with “Uma Thurman j’adore” in a Google search box, court papers say.
Jordan’s lawyer says the new charges are excessive, particularly felony contempt charges that entail instilling or trying to instill “reasonable fear of physical injury” and death. Roberts notes that Jordan isn’t accused of threatening Thurman, just of trying to talk to her.
But Carro, who presided over Jordan’s trial, said he “finds no basis for dismissal” of the new charges.
If convicted of contempt, Jordan could face up to four years in prison. He’s due back in court March 30.
Thurman’s spokeswoman has said she won’t comment on the case. It’s being prosecuted by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office because Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s former law firm has represented the actress.
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