Jennifer Garner has been granted a three-year court order against 'stalker' Steven Burky.
Jennifer Garner has been granted a three-year court order against 'stalker' Steven Burky.© Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos
The 'Alias' actress - who revealed in court papers she feared for the life of her unborn baby, her second child with husband Ben Affleck, because of Burky's "dangerous and threatening" behaviour - was awarded the order in court yesterday (20.11.08).
Judge Richard Rico seemed familiar with the charges against Burky, and hesitated for only a second before passing the order.
He said: "I don't think you need any documents. Based upon the declaration, I'll grant the request."
Burky is now legally forbidden from having coming within 100 yards of Jennifer, Ben, or the couple's two-year-old daughter Violet until 2011.
In the court papers, Jennifer wrote: "Mr. Burky has been stalking and harassing me, sending packages and letters containing delusional and paranoid thoughts and following me around the country.
"Within the past year his obsessive and harassing behaviour has escalated to the point of becoming dangerous and threatening. He once came to my home and said God has sent him a vision of me being persecuted in some manner that may result in my death."
While Burky is currently being held in a psychiatric ward under a 5150 psychiatric hold, where a person is involuntarily committed into a psychiatric institution because they are at risk of causing harm to themselves or others, his family insist he is not dangerous - merely "lovesick".
Burky's aunt Maxine explained to the New York Daily News newspaper: "He does have a mental disorder. He's supposed to be taking medication. He's not dangerous."
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