A stalking charge in Texas is a felony — not a misdemeanor, not a ticket. If you’ve been charged or you’re under investigation, you’re facing something serious. And the charge can come from circumstances that felt nothing like what most people picture when they hear the word “stalking.”
I’ve defended people charged with stalking after a bad breakup, a contentious divorce, a workplace dispute, and social media activity that was never intended as threatening. The charge is serious. But it has specific elements the State must prove — and those elements are the starting point for every defense.
Harassment vs. Stalking: What’s the Difference?
These two charges travel together, and it’s worth understanding how they’re different — because the gap between them is the gap between a misdemeanor and a felony.
Harassment under Texas Penal Code § 42.07 covers a broad range of unwanted communication: repeated phone calls, threatening texts, obscene messages, false reports of death or injury sent to cause alarm. A first-offense harassment charge is a Class B misdemeanor — up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Stalking under Texas Penal Code § 42.072 is different in degree and in kind. It requires a pattern of conduct — more than one incident — that causes actual fear and that would cause a reasonable person to fear. A first-offense stalking charge is a felony of the third degree.
This distinction matters because prosecutors sometimes charge stalking when the facts might only support harassment — or they file both. Understanding which charge the evidence actually supports is one of the first things I look at.
How Texas Stalking Law Actually Works
The stalking statute has three things the State must prove — all three, beyond a reasonable doubt:
1. A course of conduct. The conduct must happen more than once and be part of the same scheme directed at a specific person. One bad night doesn’t qualify. The State needs to establish a pattern.
2. Actual fear or distress. The alleged victim must have actually been placed in fear of bodily injury or death — or made to feel harassed, intimidated, alarmed, or tormented. This isn’t just the victim saying they were upset. There has to be evidence of real fear or distress.
3. The reasonable person standard. A reasonable person in the same circumstances would have to fear the same thing. This is an objective test — not just what this particular person claimed to feel.
All three elements have to be proven. If the State can’t establish one of them, the charge doesn’t hold.
Penalties
First offense: Stalking is a felony of the third degree — 2 to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
With a prior conviction: If you’ve previously been convicted of stalking in Texas or a substantially similar offense under another jurisdiction’s laws, the charge upgrades to a felony of the second degree — 2 to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
Protective orders: A protective order issued in connection with a stalking allegation carries its own weight. Violating it is a separate criminal offense. And the existence of an order — especially if you’ve violated it — becomes evidence the State will use to establish intent and pattern.
When a Misunderstanding Becomes a Felony Charge
Most of the stalking cases I see don’t involve a stranger lurking outside someone’s house. They involve people who know each other — sometimes very well.
Common situations:
- Breakups — one person keeps reaching out, the other person feels it’s harassment. What felt like persistence felt like fear to the other side.
- Divorce and custody disputes — tensions run high, communication breaks down, and one party files a police report to gain leverage. Stalking allegations in the middle of a custody fight are not uncommon.
- Social media activity — repeatedly viewing someone’s profile, commenting, or messaging can form the basis of a charge even without any in-person contact.
- Workplace conflicts — unwanted communication between coworkers or former coworkers that one party experiences as threatening.
- Ambiguous contact — texts that seemed fine to you read very differently to someone who was already scared, or to a prosecutor reviewing them months later.
None of these situations means the charge is valid. It means the charge exists — and that context matters enormously in how to defend it.
How I Defend Stalking Cases
Challenging the course of conduct. The State needs a pattern. I look at the specific incidents they’re relying on — when they happened, what the relationship looked like at each point, whether they genuinely form a single scheme or whether they’re isolated events being grouped together retroactively.
Attacking the reasonable person standard. This is an objective test. The question isn’t just whether this particular alleged victim was frightened — it’s whether a reasonable person in the same situation would have been. I look hard at whether the conduct, in full context, would actually cause a reasonable person to fear.
Context for digital evidence. Text messages and social media posts look different in isolation than they do in full context. A prosecutor shows the jury the ten messages that seem threatening. I show the jury the conversation those messages came from, what was said before and after, and what a reasonable reading of the exchange actually looks like. Screenshots lie by omission.
False accusation defense. When a stalking charge surfaces in the middle of a divorce, a custody battle, or a bitter workplace dispute, I take that seriously. Motive to fabricate or exaggerate is a legitimate defense, and the timing of a charge tells a story.
Lack of knowing conduct. The statute requires that the actor know or reasonably should know the other person would regard the conduct as threatening. If the contact was genuinely ambiguous — or if there was mixed messaging from the alleged victim — that mental state element is worth challenging.
How I Help
If you’ve been charged with stalking or you’re under investigation, the first thing I want to do is understand the full picture — not just the incident report. What was the relationship? What was actually communicated, and in what context? Is there a protective order involved? Are there other charges filed alongside this one?
Stalking cases are built on pattern evidence, and patterns can be told different ways. Call me and we’ll go through what actually happened.
Is stalking always a felony in Texas?
Yes. Under Texas Penal Code § 42.072, a first-offense stalking charge is a felony of the third degree. There is no misdemeanor version of stalking in Texas. Harassment (§ 42.07) is the related misdemeanor charge, but once conduct rises to the level of stalking — repeated course of conduct causing actual fear, with a reasonable person standard — it’s a felony.
Can I be charged with stalking for texts or social media messages?
Yes. The stalking statute covers any conduct that causes fear — including digital communication. Repeated electronic messages, social media activity, or tracking someone’s location without consent can all form the basis of a stalking charge. The course-of-conduct and reasonable person elements still apply, but the medium doesn’t protect you.
What if the alleged victim was sending mixed signals or responding to my messages?
That matters. If the alleged victim was responding to your messages, initiating contact, or otherwise sending signals that weren’t consistent with someone in fear, that cuts against the State’s case — both on the actual fear element and the reasonable person standard. This is exactly the kind of context I build into the defense.
What happens if there’s a protective order in my case?
A protective order connected to a stalking allegation creates two problems: violating it is a separate criminal offense, and its existence gives the State evidence of a pattern and your awareness of it. If you have a protective order in place — or one is being sought — contact me before you do anything else. How you handle the period between the allegation and the trial matters.
Serving All of Collin County
I defend clients throughout Collin County, including:
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