A Los Angeles County court on Monday granted pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter a temporary restraining order against a man she said was stalking her and trying to break into her home.
The court prohibited William Applegate, 31, from being within 100 yards of Carpenter or his sister Sarah Carpenter and the latter’s partner, who also live in the Hollywood Hills home, according to Monday’s order.
Carpenter filed a request for a civil harassment restraining order against Applegate in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday. The application alleges that Applegate approached Carpenter’s front door and attempted to force it open on May 23, an escalation of alleged harassing behavior that had occurred at least around April 20.
“His patterns of harassment, intrusion and surveillance have caused me severe and ongoing emotional distress, and I am afraid. [of] what he can do if not restrained by his court,” Carpenter wrote in his declaration requesting the restraining order.
NBC News could not find contact information for Applegate on Monday, and it was unclear whether he had an attorney. The Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The application alleges that Applegate attempted to open Carpenter’s front door on May 23. When a security guard confronted him, Applegate punched the man, according to a statement in support of the restraining order from a Los Angeles police detective.
Footage from a Ring security camera shows a man, whom the restraining order application identifies as Applegate, at Carpenter’s front door and confronted by a security guard with a flashlight.
According to court documents, the security guard told Applegate to leave, but he refused and said he knew Carpenter and that she was waiting for him, a claim the documents called “outrageous and entirely false.”
Applegate refused to leave until police arrived, according to the detective, an expert in threat management. The detective wrote that Applegate “developed a disturbing and irrational fixation on” Carpenter.
After being arrested on suspicion of trespassing, a misdemeanor, the man returned to the neighborhood the next two days, Carpenter said in his statement.
He parked his Toyota Prius nearby and tilted his seat to make it harder to see, she said, as he carried out what she called “deliberate surveillance” and “harassment.” He left once officers responded, Carpenter said.
After that, Carpenter’s security staff determined the man had been parking in the neighborhood and “gradually” approaching his home since around April 20, according to the application.
“His delusional insistence that he knows me and was expected by me is indicative of a dangerous, delusional and irrational fixation on me,” Carpenter wrote in his statement.
The restraining order also covers Carpenter’s workplace and vehicle and states that Applegate cannot harass, intimidate, threaten, contact or stalk her.
The police department submitted its case for trespassing and other allegations related to the May 23 incident to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office so it could determine whether charges should be filed, the police detective wrote in his statement in support of a restraining order. A court hearing on the matter is scheduled for June 18, he said.
