Serena Williams' stalker charged with misdemeanor, ordered to get treatment

Jet, Sept 23, 2002

A German man recently pleaded guilty to stalking top-ranked tennis player Serena Williams at Criminal Court in Queens, NY.

After he was arrested at the National Tennis Center two weeks before the U. S. Open Finals and held on $3,000 bail, Albrecht Stromeyer, 34, entered a plea to fourth-degree stalking--a misdemeanor--and was discharged.

Judge Suzanne Melendez told Stromeyer to stay away from Williams and her family and at least 1,000 yards from any WTA Tour or U.S. Tennis Association tournament. Stromeyer waived his right of appeal and agreed to get psychiatric treatment in his hometown of Frankfurt.

Stromeyer was charged with two counts of stalking after police spotted him watching through a fence as Williams, the Wimbledon, French Open and now U.S. Open champion, played a third-round match.

Williams has been traveling with a bodyguard since May. Stromeyer admitted in a written statement to police that he had been following Williams around the world. He was arrested outside the gates of Wimbledon in July after he scuffled with police and told the officers he loved her and would never hurt her.

In May, Stromeyer was ordered to leave Italy after police at the Italian Open received word of his history of harassing Williams. Two months earlier, Stromeyer walked into an Arizona hotel-resort where she was playing and asked to see her. When he was turned down, Stromeyer began undressing in front of the desk clerk. He was charged with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure.

"I don't think the guy is ever going to give up," Serena's father Richard Williams told the New York Daffy News about his concern for his 20-year-old daughter. "At some point ... something very tragic could take place. Would (anything) stop me from killing this guy if he did something to one of my daughters? I do not think all the police officers in the world could stop me."