CINCINNATI -- Jacqueline "Crysta" Pleatman, an Indian Hill woman convicted telecommunications harassment in connection with a lawsuit full of twists and turns, is trying to stay out of jail.
Pleatman was convicted of harassing homeowner Grant Troja, who sued her after she backed out of negotiations to buy his $1.2 million home. She said she'd discovered a man convicted of attempted murder lived next door. Pleatman was charged with two counts of telecommunications harassment over emails and a text that she supposedly sent to Troja; in November, a jury convicted her on one count but could not reach a verdict other, prompting prosecutors to drop that second charge.
As Pleatman's attorney, Clyde Bennett, argued Tuesday to keep his client free, a Hamilton County prosecutor revealed that Pleatman was accused of harassment in 2011. Prosecutor Gwen Bender alleged that case stemmed from an affair.
"This is like a 'Fatal Attraction' email that you see," Bender said. "She goes on and on detailing explicitly in very crude language to the wife everything she did with the husband."
In that case, Pleatman paid a fine. But the point, Bender said, is that Pleatman has harassed before, and so should have to serve her jail sentence -- 180 days, with 140 days suspended.
According to prosecutors, in addition to emails sent to Troja's business, Pleatman resorted to dramatic stunts.
"How in the reasonable world, does someone not realize when they're making a phone call to hire a plane to fly over a kid's football game, do they not say 'That's enough'?" Hamilton County Judge Fanon Rucker said.
Pleatman has already served some jail time: Judge Jody Luebbers said in December that Pleatman sent five emails to people in her case after she was ordered not to. The judge ordered her serve five days in jail for contempt of court and had deputies handcuff her immediately.
Pleatman is now out of jail pending her appeal in the telecommunications harassment case. Proceedings in the civil case between her and Troja begin Monday.
