Chicago Man Arrested for Internet Stalking

A 47—year-old Chicago man was arrested yesterday after being charged with sending threatening and harassing communications to a Hollywood-based professional model with a large online following. The arrest was announced today by Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who was joined by Garry F. McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), and Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart in announcing the arrest.

Luis F. Plascnecia, who resides at 5421 North Lovejoy in Chicago, was arrested at his residence yesterday morning, without incident, by members of the Chicago FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force (VCTF). Plascnecia was charged in a criminal complaint field earlier this week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles with one count of interstate stalking, which is a felony offense.

According to the complaint, beginning in March of this year and continuing until his arrest, Plascnecia is alleged to have stalked the female victim, sending her numerous threatening and harassing messages via e-mail and Facebook. Some of the messages indicated that Plascnecia possessed detailed personal information about the victim, including her home address and the address of several of her friends and family members. Many of the messages threatened the victim and her family with physical harm and personal embarrassment.

The messages came from numerous e-mail addresses and user names, which were eventually traced back to Plascnecia, either to a personal e-mail account at his residence or to public computer terminals in the Chicago Public Library system.

Plascnecia appeared before Magistrate Judge Young B. Kim in Chicago yesterday afternoon, at which time he was formally charged. He was ordered held without bond, pending his next court appearance, which is scheduled for June 29 in Chicago. Until then, Plascnecia will be held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago. If convicted of the charge filed against him, Plascnecia faces a possible sentence of up to five years’ incarceration.

This case was investigated by the Los Angeles Office of the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

The Chicago FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force (VCTF) is comprised of FBI special agents, detectives from the Chicago Police Department (CPD), and investigators from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.