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Story of Jennifer Garner's Stalker Who Was Caught at Her Daughter's Nursery School

Odette Odendaal
Jul 17, 2019
03:43 P.M.

For eight years Jennifer Garner had to deal with a stalker who claimed a vision of God led him to contact her before he got sent to a mental institution indefinitely.

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The vision came to Steven Richard Burky in 2002 and love letters riddled with religious references soon followed. "Almost not a day has gone by when I have not written or talked aloud of my love for you. But I don't know if you were ever allowed to hear it," he wrote in one of the letters.

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The born-again Christian believed that he had been a victim of satanic ritual abuse as a child and authored the blog, Satanic Panic. Steven followed Jennifer across the country, which led to her and her husband at the time, Ben Affleck to get a restraining order against Steven in 2008 after an incident earlier in the year.

In February 2008, Steven sent an e-mail to one of the film crew members she worked with and begged that he warn Jennifer about a vision he had.

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"The vision shows that persecution may take place in broad daylight against Jennifer Garner for her faith in Jesus Christ. It also involves the possible emergence of a dark secret in America. The presence of illicit witchcraft going on in this country, and illicit sacrifices," he wrote.

Steven got ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from the entire family as the “Alias” star told the court that she feared for her safety and that of her family.

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"I now fear not only for my own personal safety but also for the safety and well being of those I love and care most about, including my husband and daughter. Also, I am pregnant and fear for the safety of my second child once born," Jennifer told the court.

In December 2009, Steven violated the permanent restraining order when he showed up at Jennifer’s daughter’s nursery school. He got arrested and remained in jail on $300,000 bail and appeared again in court early in 2010 where he pleaded not guilty to charges of stalking and disobeying a court order.

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After testimony given by two psychiatrists, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Katherine Mader found him not guilty on those charges by reason of insanity two months later.

The Judge found Steven, not of sound mind and sent him to Patton State Hospital until doctors declared him mentally fit to leave and got ordered to stay away from Jennifer’s family for 10 years.

In 2012, Ben Affleck shared that he owned several guns, possessions he embraced before Steven got sent to the mental hospital indefinitely.

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"The stalker had been to our house many times and ultimately came to my children's school and was arrested. It gave me a stronger sense of feeling protective of my family. There's a lot of crazy, weird people out there. It's an ugly world," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Jennifer gave birth to the couple’s third child, Samuel the same year but in 2015 they got divorced.

Since then the couple successfully co-parent their three beautiful children, Samuel, and his siblings Violet and Seraphina.

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