Justin Massler, the Reno man who was arrested and accused of stalking socialite Ivanka Trump earlier this year, is now a fugitive. Massler, who is said to have "a history of mental illness," missed his court date this week, his second in the past two months, prompting a Judge to sign an arrest warrant on him. Massler's lawyer said that his client is in Nevada, and doesn't have enough money to fly out for the court appearances. But Massler, aka Cloud Starchaser, told us that the whole "stalker" thing was actually performance art, like "Andy Kaufman or Steven Colbert or some shit."
Prosecutors have accused Massler of setting up fan Web sites, penning gushy love letters, scolding screeds, and loony cartoons of Ivanka over the past two years. However, they also said it's too bad he didn't show up for court, since they were willing to cut him a deal: if he pled guilty in the misdemeanor stalking and harassment case, he'd get the charge reduced to a violation after a year of psych treatment.
Last month, we made a passing reference to Massler in a post on Caroline Kennedy's daughter's stalker, Naeen Ahmed. Massler wrote to complain about being lumped in with other real celebrity stalkers:
See the thing is, I'm not a real stalker. I was never stalking Ivanka Trump, I was arrested over a goddman internet blog/twitter where I was doing a fake stalker thing, like you know Andy Kaufman or Steven Colbert or some shit.
I don't know how, but somehow the police decided that Twitter counts as a real communication method, which I did not know it did. I was just writing it for the entertainment of people who read my Twitter, not to actually talk to the Trump Girl or anything.
We contacted him again to ask about the latest development in his case. But he does seem aware of how the press from the case/his performance art has hurt him: "I feel like I'm dealing with some major, major image problems at the moment that are preventing people from responding to me."
