Indiana

US man charged with stalking WNBA and Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark

Published

11 months ago

January 14, 2025

US man charged with stalking WNBA and Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark

Clark told police she feared for her safety and had altered her appearance in public after receiving the messages on X.

Police in the US state of Indianapolis have charged a man from Texas with a felony for stalking Women’s NBA superstar Caitlin Clark.

Michael Thomas Lewis is accused of repeated and continued harassment of the 22-year-old Clark beginning on December 16, the Marion County prosecutor’s office wrote in a court filing on Saturday. Jail records show Lewis is due in court on Tuesday.

Lewis posted numerous messages on Clark’s X account, according to an affidavit from a Marion County sheriff’s lieutenant.

In one, he said he had been driving by the Gainbridge Fieldhouse – one of the arenas where the Fever play home games – three times a day, and in another, he said he had “one foot on a banana peel and the other on a stalking charge”. Other messages directed at Clark were sexually explicit.

The posts “actually caused Caitlin Clark to feel terrorised, frightened, intimidated, or threatened” and an implicit or explicit threat also was made “with the intent to place Caitlin Clark in reasonable fear of sexual battery,” prosecutors wrote in the Marion County Superior Court filing.

Lewis could face up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

The FBI learned that the X account belonged to Lewis and that the messages were sent from IP addresses associated with an Indianapolis hotel and a downtown public library.

Indianapolis police spoke with Lewis on January 8 at his hotel room. He told officers he was in Indianapolis on vacation. When asked why he was making so many posts about Clark, Lewis replied: “Just the same reason everybody makes posts,” according to court documents.

He told police that he did not mean any harm and that he fantasised about being in a relationship with Clark.

“It’s an imagination, fantasy type thing and it’s a joke, and it’s nothing to do with threatening,” he told police, according to the court documents.

In asking the court for a higher than standard bond, the prosecutor’s office said Lewis travelled from his home in Texas to Indianapolis “with the intent to be in close proximity to the victim”.

The prosecutor’s office also sought a stay-away order as a specific condition if Lewis is released from jail before trial. Prosecutors requested that Lewis be ordered to stay away from the Gainbridge and Hinkle fieldhouses where the Fever play home games.

Responding to the threats, Clark told police she feared for her safety and had altered her appearance in public.

“It takes a lot of courage for women to come forward in these cases, which is why many don’t,” Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears said, according to The Indianapolis Star.

“In doing so, the victim is setting an example for all women who deserve to live and work in Indy without the threat of sexual violence.”

Clark, 22, was the number one overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft after a celebrated career at Iowa. She earned All-Star and All-WNBA honours and was named the WNBA Rookie of the Year in the 2024 season.

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Indiana

Indiana's Curt Cignetti becomes the first back-to-back winner of AP coach of the year

Published

6 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Indiana's Curt Cignetti becomes the first back-to-back winner of AP coach of the year

Curt Cignetti has been named The Associated Press coach of the year in college football for the second consecutive season. He is the first coach to win the award back-to-back since it was first presented in 1998. Cignetti has led Indiana to unprecedented success, with a 24-2 record over two seasons. The Hoosiers are 13-0 this year, Big Ten champions for the first time since 1967, and the top seed in the College Football Playoff. Cignetti received 47 first-place votes. Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea received two each, and Virginia’s Tony Elliott got one.

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Indiana

Central Indiana schools announce closures, delays planned for Tuesday

Published

18 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Central Indiana schools announce closures, delays planned for Tuesday

INDIANAPOLIS — Some schools in central Indiana are planning to close or delay the start of their classes on Tuesday.

The closures and delays come in the wake of a difficult weekend of severe winter weather in the Hoosier State. On Saturday, a wintry system dumped more than six inches of snow in some portions of the state.

Points north of Indianapolis like Lafayette received between three and four inches of snow. Towns south of the Circle City like Seymour saw similar snowfall totals. As for Indianapolis itself, more than five inches of snow were recorded in some portions of the city.

After Saturday’s snow, frigid temperatures took hold in the area. A Cold Weather Advisory was issued for much of the state as wind chill values dipped well below zero.

The cold and snow triggered a bevy of school closings and delays for Monday. Schools began to announce delays and closures for Tuesday late Monday night as snow removal crews across the state continued to try to keep roadways clear.

Though some schools plan to close or delay the start of classes on Tuesday, temperature improvements are forecasted. High temperatures are anticipated to exceed the 32-degree freezing threshold and hit 36 degrees. The warming trend is expected to continue on both Wednesday and Thursday, with high temperatures forecasted to reach 40 and 50 degrees, respectively.

Precipitation is forecasted for Thursday, though temperatures are expected to remain warm enough for Indiana to get rain instead of snow.

FOX59/CBS4 is tracking the closures and delays schools plan to implement on Tuesday. Check out the latest available list of closings below:

Jump To: A–Z

A

Area 30 Career Center

Putnam

Charles A Beard Mem School Corp

Henry

School

Delayed 2 hours

Cloverdale Community Schools

Putnam

School

2-Hour Delay, No AM Preschool

D

Decatur County Community Schools

Decatur

School

Delayed 2 hours

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Indiana

AwardsWatch – Indiana Film Journalists Association (IFJA) Awards: ‘Sinners’ Named Best Picture

Published

1 day ago

December 15, 2025

Press Room

AwardsWatch – Indiana Film Journalists Association (IFJA) Awards: ‘Sinners’ Named Best Picture

The Indiana Film Journalists Association (IFJA) has named Sinners the best film of 2025, also awarding the film original screenplay, score, cinematography, editing and ensemble.

Paul Thomas Anderson was named best director for One Battle After Another, which also picked up acting wins for Benicio Del Toro (supporting performance) and Chase Infiniti (breakout of the year).

Here is the complete list of winners and runners-up.

Best Picture
Winner: Sinners
Runner-up: One Battle After Another

Best Director
Winner: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Ryan Coogler, Sinners

Best Lead Performance
Winner: Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Runner-up: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet

Best Supporting Performance
Winner: Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Amy Madigan, Weapons

Best Vocal / Motion-Capture Performance
Winner: Will Patton, Train Dreams
Runner-up: Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Best Ensemble Acting
Winner: Sinners
Runner-up: One Battle After Another

Best Animated Film
Winner: K-Pop Demon Hunters
Runner-up: The Legend of Hei 2

Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: No Other Choice
Runner-up: Sentimental Value

Best Documentary Film
Winner: The Tenderness Tour
Runner-up: Orwell: 2+2=5

Best Original Screenplay
Winner: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Runner-up: Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme

Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Mike Flanagan, The Life of Chuck

Best Musical Score
Winner: Ludwig Göransson, Sinners
Runner-up: Jonny Greenwood, One Battle After Another

Breakout of the Year
Winner: Chase Infiniti (performer), One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Miles Caton (performer), Sinners

Best Cinematography
Winner: Autumn Donald Arkapaw, Sinners
Runner-up: Michael Bauman, One Battle After Another

Best Editing
Winner: Michael P. Shawver, Sinners
Runner-up: Andy Jurgensen, One Battle After Another

Best Stunt / Movement Choreography
Winner: Wade Eastwood (second-unit director / stunt coordinator), Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
Runner-up: Brian Machleit (stunt coordinator), One Battle After Another

Best Special Effects
Winner: Dennis Berardi, Ayo Burgess and Ivan Busquets (visual effects supervisors) and José Granell (miniatures / models supervisor), Frankenstein
Runner-up: Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl and Guido Wolter (visual effects supervisors) and Donnie Dean (special effects coordinator), Sinners

Original Vision Award
Winner: Good Boy
Runner-up: The Testament of Ann Lee

The Edward Johnson-Ott Hoosier Award
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.