CLEARWATER, Fla. — A northeast Alabama man has been arrested for stalking Clearwater council member Mark Bunker including leaving threatening voicemails and Facebook messages, records show.
Ricky Myers, 58, of Collinsville, Alabama, was charged with aggravated stalking and was extradited from Alabama on April 30, according to documents from a Pinellas County Circuit Court.
Back on Oct. 19, 2022, Myers was accused of making three phone calls from an Alabama area code to Bunker's Google telephone number posted publicly on the Clearwater City Council Facebook page, according to an affidavit. Although he was not identified in the court filings, his initials were published and Bunker confirmed publicly to the Tampa Bay Times that he was the recipient of the threatening messages.
Bunker said he did not answer the first call due to not being familiar with the number, but listened to a voicemail the caller left.
Although the caller did not call Bunker by name, the affidavit alleges Myers began the voicemail with expletives and said he would "mess up" Bunker's face, in addition to calling him a "stupid, fat son of b----."
After the second call, a second voicemail came through. During that message, the caller stated, "I will kill you," the affidavit continues. The third voicemail from the caller came later in the day to which the caller stated they had business to take care of.
According to the affidavit, in one of the voice messages the caller expressed resentment toward Bunker after Bunker put him in prison for 17 years. This confused the council member because he's never worked in law enforcement or been involved with anything that could send someone to prison.
After submitting a subpoena request to Metro PCS/T-Mobile to figure out who the caller was, it was confirmed that the phone number used to leave threatening voicemails belonged to Myers; he was the account holder and subscriber, the affidavit shows.
In addition to threatening voicemails, Bunker also received Facebook messages from an account under the name, Ricky Myers. Among messages he received, one said, "U [sic] didn't realize who you were dealing with." Another said, "I'm getting even."
A subpoena request was also sent for the user's information related to the Facebook account with the personalized URL, "potice.fluker.507." Bunker received the Facebook subpoena return and learned that the Facebook account was registered to Myers with an associated email that included his name and the same phone number used to leave threatening voicemails.
Following the findings, a warrant was issued for Myers' arrest. After being arrested and placed in the Pinellas County Jail, his bond was set at $50,000. However, he bounded out hours later.
Bunker wrote in a Facebook post, "I'd like to thank our law enforcement and the state attorney's office for their actions in this case," and attached a report about the investigation.
Myers is scheduled for arraignment at 1:30 p.m. on May 22.
