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The twelve jurors in the trial of the alleged stalker of Uma Thurman, Jack Jordan, have reached a verdict. They found him guilty of one count of stalking and one count of second-degree aggravated harassment, but was acquitted of two additional counts of second-degree aggravated harassment. His sentencing was set for June 2 and he faces up to one year in prison, however it's likely that he will do around six months.
On Monday, Defense lawyer George Vomvolakis presented his client, Jack Jordan, on trial in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on charges of stalking and aggravated harassment, as an innocuous man deeply in love with Uma Thurman, who never intended to frighten or harass her.
“He's trying to get to the woman he loves, although it's an obsession, in the hope that she will love him back,” Vomvolakis said in his closing argument. “Jack Jordan is not charged with obsession. Obsession is not a crime.”
Vomvolakis reiterated a previously presented argument, that Jordan “doesn’t think like most of us” and that to him it was natural to attempt to meet the woman he felt so strongly about.
He kept his calm throughout his testimony, willing to answer every question addressed to him. Jordan said he loved and respected Ms. Thurman and he understood how his actions might have been “misguided,” perhaps even “foolish,” in his “quest” to win her over in the last two years. He also added that he kept on being so persistent because nobody had told him very clearly to stop, denying that Thurman’s assistant ordered him off the set of “My Super Ex-Girlfriend.”
It is known that he has received psychiatric treatment in the past. Jordan was diagnosed as schizophrenic and, while he was in hospital, he sent Thurman 20 letters. Jordan was also institutionalized in a mental facility in late 2005 after a detective told his parents he had sent Thurman a package of razor blades, referring to a drawing sent by Jordan.
The prosecution did not present Jordan’s behavior as lightly, insisting that he persistently gave Thurman reasons to fear for her safety and that of her children. “This isn't about love for Uma Thurman,” Assistant District Attorney Jessica Taub told jurors, as quoted by the AP. “This is about self-absorption.”
The jury has heard how Jordan stalked Thurman from early 2005 to fall 2007, when he was arrested in October. Last week, Thurman testified that Jordan tried to break into her trailer while on the set of a movie in 2005 and that he sent her a card with morbid drawings on it and a sexually charged message.
She also told how her parents and brother received emails and calls from the accused and how he threatened to kill himself if he did not meet her. “I was completely freaked out,” Thurman said of his messages. “It was almost like a nightmare; it was scary.”
Uma Karuna Thurman is one of the tallest actresses in Hollywood at 6 feet. She married Gary Oldman in 1990, then Ethan Hawke in 1998. They have two children, daughter Maya Ray Thurman-Hawke and son Levon Roan Thurman-Hawke and divorced in 2004. She is currently dating Arpad Busson, a London based French/Swiss financier in hedge funds.
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