NY- Cable news beauty Monica Crowley faced down her alleged stalker in court yesterday, telling a jury how a lovesick kook haunted her with disturbing e-mails and followed her around town - armed with roses.
"I was horrified, terrified to walk around the city where I live, to think this guy was following me," Crowley said of suspect Ronald Martin, 41, in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Martin, who was arrested almost two years ago, is on trial for tormenting Crowley, a gorgeous blond who has worked for former President Richard Nixon, WABC-AM radio, Fox News and MSNBC.
In a star turn on the witness stand, a black-clad Crowley coolly recounted how, in the course of a year, a few e-mails from a fan escalated into an obsession that left her deathly afraid.
She described how the harassment came to a head in July 2004, when she had to scream for strangers to help after Martin accosted her in the subway.
The 37-year-old conservative broadcaster had just finished her radio show and was on the E-train platform, looking down the tracks when she "felt a hand grab me hard on the forearm."
She spun around and saw the schlub who had been popping up outside her office for months, which had forced her to change her routines and seek police protection.
"Mr. Martin was 2 inches from my face - 2 inches," she said.
"I've got to talk to you," he said.
"You've got to leave me alone," she shot back.
Crowley said she tried to walk around him but he blocked the way, so she began yelling out, "This guy has been stalking me!" until he ran.
"I was shaking in fear," she said.
Crowley's first encounter with Martin wasn't face to face. It happened in August 2003 when he sent the first of nearly 500 e-mails - most of which have been lost - to her office.
"Gradually, those e-mails became more and more bizarre, more and more obsessive ... to the point where it frightened me," she said. "He was messaging me that he couldn't stop thinking about me."
By January 2004, she was getting up to five messages a day, and she started to notice the same face lurking outside her WABC and Fox News offices, sometimes behind bushes.
Soon, the mystery man introduced himself and was begging to speak with her. He started appearing with a rose, pleading, "I just want to give this to you."
Crowley saw the stalker at random places around the city, and she changed the times she left for work, to no avail.
One night in April, she said, Martin rushed through Fox's doors, screaming "Monica!" until guards pushed him out.
Another evening, she was anchoring at a street-level studio and was aghast to spot his reflection in the TelePrompTer.
Guards at the buildings where she worked were alerted, but by mid-April, Crowley was scared enough to call the NYPD.
Six days after the subway incident, a detective was by her side as she left WABC, and he arrested Martin in midstalk.
"He was 5 yards away," Crowley recalled. "'That's him,' I said."
Martin's lawyer Stuart Singer contended in opening arguments that Crowley had exaggerated his client's behavior to further her career.
He argued she was embroiled in a plagiarism scandal over a 1999 article and facing questions about her Ph.D. thesis - and used Martin as a distraction.
"This is a grand publicity stunt," Singer told the judge.
On cross-examination, Singer insinuated Crowley was a good actress and tried in vain to get her to say Martin's behavior was like any other admirer's.
She did concede that Martin never threatened her in an e-mail, but otherwise deflected Singer's claims without losing her composure.
Martin, who could face a year in prison on misdemeanor charges of stalking and harassment, watched Crowley intently.
His lawyer said that, since his arrest, he has spent more time in psychiatric facilities, being evaluated for his fitness for trial, than he faces if convicted.
