Long Island woman says man has been stalking, terrorizing her since she listed an iPhone for sale online 3 years ago

Melanie Smith thought she was selling an old iPhone on Facebook Marketplace.

Instead, the Suffolk County nurse said she spent the next three years trapped in a campaign of stalking and psychological terror by a stranger who flooded her with threats, sexually explicit messages and unwanted gifts, all while repeatedly slipping through gaps in New York’s criminal justice and mental health systems.

All by a man she has never met.

I'm "always on edge with everything," said Smith, whose hometown Newsday is not disclosing to protect her safety. "I feel like I can't fully relax because I don't know if I turn around when I'm in a shop, or I'm in a parking lot, that this guy is going to be there. ... I don't live a normal life anymore."

'System is broken'

Smith's accused stalker, Michal Pacek, 47, of Bayonne, New Jersey, has sent hundreds of unsolicited text and voicemail messages, emails and social media posts and comments that range from graphically sexual to wildly conspiratorial, records reviewed by Newsday show.

According to the victim and her attorney, during the past three years, Pacek has shown up at Smith's parents' house, taunting the family, while sending dozens of unsolicited gifts, from flowers and cash, to lingerie and sex toys. 

Pacek, they said, also threatened to kill Smith if she does not obey his commands and posted her parents' address online, while claiming without proof that Smith and her family members were part of an international serial killer ring.

Pacek's stalking of Smith is no mystery to Suffolk law enforcement.

Smith has filed dozens of police reports and twice secured orders of protection.

Pacek has twice been arrested on charges of misdemeanor stalking and aggravated harassment, and for violating orders of protection, records show.

The charges led to minimal or no jail time, and because of loopholes in state laws keeping stalking as a misdemeanor, Smith's order of protection was allowed to expire.

Pacek, who has never physically harmed Smith, has been allowed to continue his alleged harassment — even as law enforcement confirms he has multiple outstanding warrants.

"The system is broken, and it does not protect the people who are victims," a teary-eyed Smith told Newsday last week. "And there's so many loopholes in the law that allows these people, if they're smart and calculated, to figure out how to get away with what they're doing."

Newsday's interview came after Smith described the stalking in a post on a Long Island Moms Facebook page that quickly went viral with nearly 700 comments.

Messages left with Pacek, who has a prior arrest in South Carolina for arson — a charge that was dismissed — and a conviction for pointing a gun at another individual, were not returned.

Wendy Linsalata, executive director of L.I. Against Domestic Violence, said stalking laws in New York State are inadequate.

"There are gaps and holes in the law," said Linsalata, who is working with state officials to strengthen the law. "Stalking is a class B misdemeanor in the State of New York. We need to have that upgraded."

The 'perfect victim'

In May 2023, Smith, who provides in-home nursing care, was ready to move out of her Suffolk apartment and decided to sell an old iPhone on Facebook Marketplace.

Smith received what she described as a bizarre message from a man she'd never met filled with graphic sexual remarks. Smith blocked the number but received more messages from different Facebook accounts of a similar nature. Each time, she would block the individual but others would pop up, Smith said.

Then came the barrage of phone calls, text messages, social media posts and emails to her business website.

"Pick up the phone when I call you," Pacek wrote in one message. "We have things to discuss."

While many of his early messages were exceedingly graphic, in others, he declares Smith his "creation," pleads to "hold you in my arms" and says he is "in love with you."

Pacek's messages are also often filled with indecipherable rants about politicians, bribery and child sexual abuse rings.

Some messages are in English; others in his native Polish. Some messages appear to make little sense and it's unclear if Pacek knows whom he is writing to, occasionally referring to Smith by the name of Lisa or Allison.

Smith made her social media settings private but, at the suggestion of her attorney, declined to change her phone number to better track Pacek's intentions.

But no matter what she does, Smith said the terror remains unbearable. Most nights, Smith said she has difficulty sleeping, woken by nightmares featuring her accused stalker.

On May 14, 2024, more than a year after the harassment began, came the formal introduction.

"Mel: My name is Michal Pacek, and as you probably came to realization by now you have been a victim of harassment," Pacek wrote in a text message. ... "I have carefully chosen you to be a 'victim' in a social experiment which was intended to showcase differences in the eyes of the law between rich politicians and influential people vs. poor members of the public. Long story short, I have built you to be a perfect victim."

A week later, Pacek sent Smith a picture of himself with his teenage son along with this message: "U were as young as 18 when u first started dreaming about meeting me (nice guy). What ever happened to us?"

The harassment escalates 

By the spring of 2024, Pacek's tactics escalated, Smith said.

The messages became more frequent and increasingly graphic, including a June 17 email that told Smith to "GET IN THE BOX [expletive]!!! I WILL MAKE YOU FIT!" 

Then packages starting arriving at Smith's parents' home, which Pacek indicates he learned about from her nursing registration that he located online.

The packages included 40 pieces of lingerie, sexual paraphernalia, an $800 bouquet of roses, a nail gun, $100 in a ring box, $30,000 in fake cash, a letter stuffed inside an empty whiskey bottle, home delivered meals and more than $500 in cash sent through Zelle.

Smith said she went to Suffolk police but contends they did not take her seriously. 

"They questioned me if I had an OnlyFans account, if I'd ever met him online, if I dated him," Smith said. "I really was not taken seriously at all."

In a statement, the Suffolk County Police Department said "throughout the investigation, the officer in charge has remained in regular contact with the victim and made himself directly accessible to her to ensure ongoing communication regarding the case. The Suffolk County Police Department takes this matter seriously, sympathizes with the victim, and continues to pursue every lawful avenue available to hold Pacek accountable." 

Suffolk authorities, she said, directed her to file reports with police in New Jersey, who then redirected her back to law enforcement on Long Island.

The messages continued: 

A July 8 email saying he needs to "deprogram" Smith.

A July 11 email in which Pacek seemingly confesses to 11 murders.

A July 13 marriage proposal.

A July 18 email in which Pacek says he will be in Smith's hometown on Saturday and that her mother will "choke" on her own blood.

On July 19 Smith filed for an order of protection against Pacek. It was denied because of a "lack of a relationship" between the two required by the Family Court, records show.

'Starting from scratch'

A few days later, Pacek showed up at the home of Smith's parents at midnight.

Smith's parents and brothers were waiting for Pacek and verbally confronted him as he was putting items in the family's mailbox, she said. 

By the time police arrived, Pacek had left but returned an hour later and was arrested later that evening, records show.

Pacek was charged with harassment, aggravated harassment and stalking — all misdemeanors — and an order of protection was given to Smith, documents show.

But Pacek was released on his own recognizance and immediately resumed the threatening messages, Smith said.

When Pacek arrived for his next court date less than two weeks later, he was arrested again for violating the protective order, Smith said.

While he was in jail, Smith said she received a call from her alleged stalker's then-16-year-old son, urging her to drop the charges.

Pacek spent about 90 days in a Yaphank jail pending trial before being sent to a psychiatric facility after a court-ordered evaluation determined he was not mentally fit to stand trial, according to Adam Uris, Smith's Melville-based attorney. 

Under state law, he explained, when an individual is committed to a psychiatric facility on a misdemeanor charge, the case and the order of protection are automatically dismissed. For reasons still unclear, Pacek was released from the facility after less than one day, said Uris, a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney.

"It's like starting from scratch. She has no protection whatsoever," Uris said.

'Are you scared?'

In the months that followed, the harassment continued, Smith said.

Pacek made multiple social media posts describing Smith as an "international serial killer" and posting her parents' name and address online.

Smith said Pacek messaged everyone in her networking group, falsely claiming she is a sex trafficker and child molester.

And in text messages, Pacek threatened to kill Smith if she has sex with certain men, the identity of whom she does not know, records show. But because the threats were "conditional," Smith said, authorities did not act on it.

On April 17, 2025, Pacek was arrested at Suffolk's Second Precinct in Huntington after attempting to file a complaint against law enforcement. He was charged with second-degree aggravated harassment and third- and fourth-degree stalking, all misdemeanors, court records show.

Charging documents cite a text message Pacek sent to Smith asking: "Are you scared? If I was in your position, I would be."

Pacek was released on his own recognizance and on the eve of the trial, his attorney requested a psychological fitness exam, Uris said.

When Pacek failed to show up for that exam, a warrant for his arrest was issued for bail jumping and criminal contempt, records indicate. But law enforcement failed to arrest Pacek on the outstanding warrant and the order of protection expired in April, records show.

Currently, officials said, there are six active warrants against Pacek.

"On a misdemeanor, a district court warrant cannot be executed outside New York State," a spokeswoman for Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney said last week following an inquiry by Newsday. "Bail jumping on a class A misdemeanor charge is itself a misdemeanor and cannot be arrested outside of New York. Due to the nature of this particular case, the office is now requesting that a governor’s warrant be issued to extradite this individual from out-of-state."

A governor's warrant authorizes law enforcement to arrest an individual while they await extradition.

Suffolk police added: "The department continues to work closely with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and state law enforcement partners in ongoing efforts to apprehend him." 

To date Pacek is still not in custody and continues to send threatening messages to both Smith and her family, Uris said.

"What else can I do?" Smith asked. "Because everything I've done, which is following what everyone has told me, has not resulted in anything significant. Whatever the protections are ... don't mean anything, because he can violate it 50 times in one week and nothing gets done. ... Will something get done once I'm physically hurt? Once my body is in a ditch?"

Holes in the system

Smith's case, Uris said, has exposed loopholes in a system meant to protect victims of stalking and domestic violence.

"If she was the survivor of physical sexual assault, she would have resources available to her ... and they would be taking it more seriously," he said. "The law is not treating her like a victim, because she physically hasn't been harmed. She's been terrorized, and in every regard, this is a form of sexual violence. And she's had to endure it with no relief in sight from the people who are supposed to be protecting her. The law is protecting Pacek and not her."

Linsalata, of L.I. Against Domestic Violence, said, "We need to make it easier for law enforcement and prosecutors to do what they need to do. Law enforcement knows what they're looking at but their hands are tied when it comes to how the law is written. Prosecutors' hands are also tied. They can only prosecute what's in front of them and what the law says."

Smith, meanwhile, says after years of hiding, she's ready to step forward as an advocate for legislative changes, including making aggravated stalking a felony.

"I am going to do everything I can," she said, "to make sure that this never happens to any other woman, ever, ever, ever again."