SAVANNAH, Georgia August 5 Sapa-AP

By Russ Bynum
A 53-year-old man who told police he is secretly engaged to
marry Miley Cyrus has been charged with attempting to stalk the
teenage "Hannah Montana" star, who is filming a movie in Georgia.

Tybee Island Police Chief Jim Price said Wednesday that Mark
McLeod, 53, of Appling was arrested after Walt Disney Pictures
security officers reported he had returned to the beachside movie
set Sunday after police warned him to stay away in June.

"He was asking for Miley and going up and knocking on some
doors" of beach homes near the set, Price said. "The security
guards recognized him. In fact, he went up to the security guards
and asked them 'Is Miley around?"'

Police on Tybee Island, east of Savannah, have been on the
lookout for McLeod since he was arrested there June 22 on
misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of a
police officer.

Price said officers arrested McLeod after he tried to breach a
security perimeter around the movie set. A police report says
McLeod told officers he had come to the beach "to be with Miley"
and tried to head butt one of them when he was handcuffed. McLeod
later told police he and the 16-year-old Cyrus "were supposed to be
together and we couldn't stop it."

Officer Warren Millikan wrote in his June report that McLeod
claimed he'd met Cyrus 18 months earlier, that he'd sent her
diamond rings and other gifts and that she had accepted his
marriage proposal.

The report said McLeod told police Cyrus' father, country singer
Billy Ray Cyrus, approved of their relationship and that Miley
Cyrus sent him "secret messages" through her TV show.

The officer's report quoted McLeod as saying, "Our eyes met at
her concert and we both knew. I walked straight through security
and up to her bus. Bill Ray was standing there. He shook my hand
and said you're the good man we've been praying for."
Cyrus has been working on the movie "The Last Song" in coastal
Georgia since mid-June. Filming is supposed to wrap up later this
month.

McLeod was released from jail in June after signing papers
agreeing to return for a court appearance Sept. 1. Price said
police obtained a warrant to charge him with criminal attempted
stalking, a misdemeanor, after he came back to the island Sunday.

McLeod has made no known threats to Cyrus, Price said, but the
attempted stalking charge was warranted because "he's been warned
by the police officers not to come back after the first arrest."
Sheriff's deputies in Columbia County arrested McLeod at his
home in Georgia Tuesday evening. He was being transported Wednesday
back to jail.

In March, the New York Daily news shot video of McLeod waiting
in line at a book-signing appearance by Cyrus in Manhattan. "Hold
me up. I'm a little bit nervous," said McLeod, shivering in a heavy
coat and wool hat.

"It's the first time I've ever, uh, actually been face to face
with her," McLeod told the newspaper. "I talk to her a lot but it's
kind of like I talk and she responds with pictures. It's just the
way we communicate. I'm going to get her some flowers and I'm going
to ask her to marry me."



Source : Sapa-AP /rm
Date : 05 Aug 2009 20:01 OrigID : LP498062