Rockland Cyberstalker Terrorized Victim, Parents For 18 Months

BARDONIA, NY — A Rockland County man who cyberstalked a former college classmate and her parents for months was sentenced Friday to 18 month in prison. Kristian James O’Hara of Bardonia led an 18-month conspiracy designed to intimidate and harass a former college classmate and her parents.

He started the anonymous harassment while he was a senior at Fordham University in the Bronx. He was a part of her online social network, and used that to gain information about her and her activities, stepping up the level of harassment after he was rebuffed romantically, according to a Fordham student newspaper, the Observer.

Prosecutors said from December 2016 through May 2018, O’Hara and his co-conspirator Vincent James Palesky harassed the victim and her parents in multiple ways. They frequently sent late-night food orders to her apartment, spoofed phone calls to her phone, and left disturbing voicemails at her childhood home in Delaware, falsely claiming the victim gave them a sexually transmitted disease.

In May 2018, O’Hara escalated the conduct by signing up the victim’s work email address for membership at websites including Pornhub.com, barraging the victim’s new cell phone number with spoofed calls, and posting the victim’s name, likeness, and cell phone number on a sex-chat website.

Each time his victim took steps to deter him, O’Hara found new means to inject himself into her life. The persistent nature of O’Hara’s conduct caused his victim to fear leaving her home alone.

O’Hara and Palesky also cyberstalked five other people between 2016 and 2018, including former high school acquaintances, another college classmate, and coworkers. O’Hara bragged to others about the “standard procedure” they used to psychologically harm victims, prosecutors said.

"Those who think they can use the anonymity of the Internet to terrorize people will quickly realize the investigative abilities of the FBI and cyber task force partners," said FBI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Boone. "The FBI’s mission is to protect the American people and we will always support our communities against cyberstalking."

The 25-year-old pleaded guilty April 3 to conspiracy to commit cyberstalking.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Honorable Colm F. Connolly, U.S. District Judge for the District of Delaware.