PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An Oregon woman who says she was stalked and threatened after breaking up with a man she dated wants the state to do more to protect victims like herself.
Amber Rosenberry told KOIN 6 News she feared for her life and the lives of those around her due to threats she received after ending her relationship with a man named Bo Hans Parker.
According to Rosenberry, Parker sent her hundreds of threatening messages from anonymous numbers that would sometimes include links to news articles about women who were raped and murdered in their homes. She says he also threatened to kill her horse, threatened friends and family members and even pretended to be her in messages he sent to other people.
“My family slept in shifts, we had someone awake at all times to keep watch and checking every car on the road around me and getting off at the wrong exit and driving through parking lots to make sure I wasn’t being followed. I had a lot of concerns,” said Rosenberry.
Rosenberry says her experience has been nightmarish and that Oregon’s stalking laws are limited, having been written in the late 1980s or early ’90s.
In Oregon, stalking is a misdemeanor charge that carries a maximum one year sentence. It only becomes a felony if someone is convicted of stalking and gets charged with it a second time.
Rosenberry is now pushing for Oregon to update its laws. She’s started a petition on Change.org and a Facebook group and says she wants to do everything she can to prevent others from similar experiences.
Some of the changes Rosenberry is seeking:
- Increasing the possible sentence to more than 12 months depending on severity
- Expanding the law to cover not just fear for “personal safety,” but also emotional distress. Someone’s behavior could impact your job, clients, or marriage.
- Expanding the criteria to upgrade from a misdemeanor to a felony
Parker was arrested in 2019 and is currently facing multiple charges for coercion, identity theft and stalking. Rosenberry isn’t the only victim listed in the court documents and says she learned from police that Parker had been charged in the past, but the charges were dropped.
The current case is set to go to trial in June.