Judge orders no bond, contact in cyber-stalking case

It took eight years, but a stalking victim finally has something resembling relief from the relentless pursuit of a cyber-stalker, prosecutors say.

That relief came Friday when Cook County Court Judge Kay Hanlon ordered 43-year-old former Des Plaines resident Thomas Brodnicki held without bond on felony stalking charges.

Hanlon found the defendant "poses a real and physical threat," but could not issue an order of protection because the domestic violence statute does not apply in a case where the victim had no relationship to the defendant. However, Hanlon attached special conditions prohibiting any electronic, written or third party contact by the man prosecutors describe as a white supremacist and eugenics supporter.

According to Assistant State's Attorney Scott Biestek, Brodnicki met the woman in 2000 when she was 18 and working at a Des Plaines convenience store he frequented.

"She was polite and courteous to him, as her job required her to be," said Mount Prospect Det. Lee Schaps, who described the defendant as infatuated.

The woman never encouraged Brodnicki, yet he vowed to pursue her no matter the consequences, Schaps said.

Biestek said the defendant told the victim he "wanted to impregnate her so that she could be the mother of his blonde-haired, blue-eyed babies" and that "God intended it so."

Brodnicki continued to pursue her by e-mail and once showed up at her college in Iowa, where police arrested him in 2002 on three counts of harassment. He was found guilty and was ordered to have no contact with the victim for five years.

Accused of stalking another woman in 2003, Brodnicki was declared unfit to stand trial and sent to the Elgin Mental Health Center where prosecutors say he resided on at least two occasions.

Found fit to stand trial in 2007, he pleaded guilty to the 2003 stalking charge and received seven years but was paroled in February 2008 having received credit for time served.

On June 26, prosecutors say he again contacted the original victim by e-mail claiming that he knew the no-contact order had expired and where she worked. In a July 5 e-mail which Biestek read aloud in court, Brodnicki claimed to have developed a youth serum that makes him "look 24 and feel 13," which he wanted to inject into the victim. In his e-mails, the unemployed Brodnicki claimed to have studied law extensively and called himself "untouchable." He also claimed to live off investments in Elk Grove Village, but prosecutors said he is homeless.

Mount Prospect Police arrested him Wednesday on four counts of felony stalking. If convicted, Brodnicki faces up to three years in prison. His next court date is Aug. 8.