Crime History: First defendant in state cyberstalking case

On this day, Jan. 19, in 1999, the first defendant in a state cyberstalking case was charged. California was the first state to ban cyberstalking — stalking that involves electronic communications — and its law went into effect Jan. 1, 1999. Three weeks later, Gary Dellapenta was charged under the law for placing online ads in the name of a woman who had resisted his advances, providing the woman’s address and claiming that she had rape fantasies.