A man who's allegedly made it his business of stalking Brooke Shields for at least 15 years and sending the actress dozens of lewd pictures of himself naked was ordered yesterday to stand trial on a charge of stalking. Shields said Mark Bailey, 41, had caused her "extreme fear and shock."
Los Angeles Municipal Judge Glenette Blackwell ordered Bailey to stand trial on charges of stalking Shields with a handgun and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Bailey's attorney, Lisa Polansky argued that there was no evidence that her client would harm the 34-year-old star of the "Suddenly Susan" television series.
"There's common sense," Blackwell shot back. "Whatever is going on with him is intolerable to Miss Shields." Blackwell also told the lawyers Bailey "has terrorized her since she was a teen or before. It's ongoing, long-standing and persistent."
Blackwell made her ruling after listening to testimony from police detective Merill Ladenheim who said Shields contacted him in October after opening a card from Bailey. "She stated that the name Mark Bailey invoked extreme fear and shock in her because she believed he was something that was in her past," Ladenheim said. "She told me that Mr. Bailey had been stalking and threatening her for the last 15 years of her life, since before she went to college," he said. Ladenheim said Shields told him that "she had been the recipient of many, many letters containing lewd, nude photographs of Bailey, and threatening letters to the tune of over 100 pieces of correspondence."
Prosecutors say Bailey has been arrested twice before, once for stealing a pickup truck and burglarizing Shields' home in New Jersey. After that incident, the actress obtained a permanent restraining order against him. From the witness stand, Ladenheim read rambling, often sexually explicit letters that Bailey allegedly sent to Shields or had in his pocket when he was arrested. According to the testimony, Bailey referred in the letters to Shields as his "mail order bride" and made reference to trying to meet her. In some of the envelopes he enclosed money, which Ladenheim said was especially upsetting to the actress.
"She interpreted that as his sick way of comparing her to a prostitute," Ladenheim said. The detective said Bailey also once sent Shields forms for obtaining government benefits, listing her as his employer and his job as "male prostitute." In another letter, Bailey told Shields that he thought she would want to "control" him. "All girls like that," he said. "When you were younger you teased without taking dominance, bondage position with an iron boot." Bailey, arrested Jan. 10, was held in lieu of $500,000 bail. He has pleaded innocent to the charges.
