Uma Thurman Stalker Trial Opens

NEW YORK — A former mental patient's note that his hands should be on Uma Thurman's body "at all times" may be creepy but it is not criminal, a lawyer said Monday in defense of a man accused of stalking the "Kill Bill" actress.

George Vomvolakis told the state Supreme Court jury in his opening statement that defendant Jack Jordan, who is charged with misdemeanor stalking and aggravated assault, "does not think the way you and I think. He doesn't know the boundaries you and I know. He thinks it's romantic."

But Assistant District Attorney Colleen Walsh told jurors that Jordan had tried to communicate with Thurman sporadically for more than two years, "with the intent to harass, annoy, threaten and alarm" her.

Walsh said Jordan used "emotional blackmail" to try to get to the "Pulp Fiction" star. She said he sent her family an e-mail saying, "I will kill myself if I do not get to see Uma Thurman within 24 to 48 hours."

Walsh said Thurman's family kept that and several other e-mails from the actress because they knew the messages would cause her fear. The prosecutor said Thurman, 37, and her family members will testify about the messages from Jordan.

Walsh said Jordan escalated his contact attempts by showing up at a Lower Manhattan movie set on Nov. 8, 2005, where Thurman was filming "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" and tried to get into her trailer.

The prosecutor said Jordan also appeared at Thurman's Greenwich Village home, where she lives with her two children, and rang her doorbell. At one point, one of Thurman's employees came out and found him sitting on her steps, Walsh said.

Vomvolakis said his client had no intention of harassing or threatening Thurman because he loved her, and he said so in a letter to her.

"Creepy? Yes. Obsessed? Yes. Criminal? No," the defense lawyer told the jury.

Jordan, 37, was arrested in October 2007 after being accused of following and trying to contact Thurman from early 2005 until just before his arrest. He is free on $10,000 bail.