What to Do About Long-Term Internet-Based Harassment

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Georgia and/or Colorado

I've been experiencing harassment via text message, email, and various websites from one person for nearly two years now. The harassing messages began in February of 2011 when I told this person I did not wish to be friends with him and to stop contact with me, because he seemed... "off." Clingy, passive aggressive, difficult to talk to, etc. He has sent by my estimation around 300 messages to me since then, usually around 10-20 per day for week or two at a time, with some week-to-month-long breaks of silence in between. I do not have nearly all of these messages documented unfortunately, but I have around 50 saved, from when they started, a few in the middle, and the majority received within the past few days. I do not currently feel physically threatened by these messages because I now live in another state (Georgia) but they started when I lived in the same city as him (in Colorado) and at that time I felt VERY threatened, and was afraid to leave my house at night without my pepper spray in hand for fear he might attack me.

As for the content of the messages: he has been asking me for an apology for cutting off our friendship, which I have given to him I believe 4 times now, but he still presses for a "genuine" one regardless of what I've said. He floods my inboxes on my phone, email, and various other websites with messaging functions (facebook, tumblr, twitter, formspring, etc) with insults, accusations, pleading, nonsense, obscene imagery, sexual commentary, racist/sexist/homophobic remarks, and telling me "kill yourself" and "die" and wishing other physical harm on me (getting sick, getting raped, losing limbs, etc) repeatedly. He has been stalking my posts on various websites and referring to specific friends, family members, and situations in my life that I had not told him about, as well as briefly harassing multiple friends of mine in the same way he harassed me. He has also threatened to spread false information to the college I was applying for at the time which would lead me to not be accepted, although I doubt he actually did. I do not have any messages saved where he has specifically threatened me with bodily harm, e.g "I'm gonna kill you" or anything.

I have kept my contact with him to a minimum, aside from trying to apologize to placate him or telling him to stop messaging me and to seek mental help. I have made NO effort to contact him first, the only times I have spoken to him have been in direct response to messages he has sent. I've mostly just ignored him and had his messages filtered from my email, blocked from my phone, etc. He keeps finding ways to get around the blocks I set up, making new accounts and using proxies to get around IP blocks, I think. I have not responded to him in about a month and I don't plan on responding to him ever again because it clearly only makes him hit harder.

So my question is, what should I do about this? I considered calling the police when I still lived in Colorado to at the very least get a restraining order, but I was made to believe that they wouldn't take it seriously because this was happening mostly online. I don't wish to file any charges against this person, he is clearly a very emotionally unstable man and doesn't need more fuel for the fire, all I want is for him to stop contacting me completely without having to change my phone number and email if at all possible. Do I have enough cause for a restraining order, should I file a police report, how would any of this work since we live in two separate states? Any advice at all on my situation would be helpful, thanks.

Use whatever mechanism the communications media give you to block this person.
Do not COMMUNICATE with this person PERIOD. Do not post in forums in response to him. Treat him as if you don't see/hear anything he says.
Being a willing participant in the communications negates the UNWANTED nature of it.

You can file complaints. Colorado bans repeated obscene communications. Georgia requires SUBSTANTIAL emotional distress.

This may provide you with some idea(s) on how to proceed.

http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/...ment-laws.aspx

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Quoting flyingron

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Use whatever mechanism the communications media give you to block this person.

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I have done so. I've blocked him everywhere I can, but like I said, he keeps finding ways around it so that messages continue to reach me.

Quote:

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Quoting flyingron

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Do not COMMUNICATE with this person PERIOD. Do not post in forums in response to him. Treat him as if you don't see/hear anything he says.
Being a willing participant in the communications negates the UNWANTED nature of it.

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I have not acknowledged him whatsoever in a month, and will continue to ignore him. To clarify, I only responded to him before after being barraged with messages. He sends 100, I send one back saying please stop contacting me, I'm sorry I upset you, I wish you no ill will, please go get mental help, etc. However, I have seen this has not worked, so again I will NOT communicate with him again whatsoever.

@souperdave, or anyone else who can advise, in which state should I be paying attention to specific laws and procedures for this, or contacting police of? Mine, or his?

Your state of residence. Any proceedings you initiate will have to be reported locally.

If you live in a city with a sizeable police force, I'd suggest possibly visiting the police station and seeing if you could sit down with a detective/investigator to discuss your situation and options.

I had a former friend who was posting a lot of nasty stuff on my page. Tagging photos of me on my FB page with demeaning labels.

I did find out that in Michigan, Harassment by Telecommunications is illegal. The State Police (in my state/area) told me to send him a very strongly worded letter telling him that Harassment by Telecommunications is a Misdemeanor in Michigan, I could easily have arrested, any questions contact (Officer) at (state police post) at (phone number). Do not post on my page, do not email me, do not call me.

Because the jerk had blocked me, I had to have his best friend (my boyfriend) send it to him. I also had to post the same message to my FB page for a week, print it out, etc. But the mention of "misdemeanor charge" and the threat of being arrested while even doing his job worked. :) After that, I was able to block him.