Woman charged with stalking Brian Cashman

A Manhattan woman was charged Thursday with stalking Yankees general manager Brian Cashman after she threatened him and demanded he pay for an unspecified medical procedure, authorities said.

Louise Neathway, 35, was arraigned last night in Manhattan Criminal Court on multiple counts including grand larceny, stalking, and aggravated harassment, officials in the Manhattan district attorney's office said.

In addition, The New York Times reported last night that a judge granted Cashman, his wife and their two children an order of protection against Neathway.

She was ordered held on $300,000 bond.

Neathway is accused of threatening Cashman if he did not provide money for the medical procedure. According to court records, she demanded other support or else she would contact the press and Cashman's family and make claims that would subject the Yankee official to "ridicule and damage his personal relationships and professional reputation."

Cashman, according to the court papers, deposited $6,000 into her bank account last month, in response to the demands that began around the fall of 2011 that he pay for a procedure costing more than $15,000.

Attorney Stephen G. McCarthy, one of two lawyers representing Neathway at the hearing Thursday night, said afterward that Neathway has denied any wrongdoing and that only half of the story has been told.

"The Manhattan district attorney's office bought his account of how this happened, hook, line and sinker," said McCarthy, who is representing Neathway along with attorney Alan Abramson.

Abramson said that "this was a case of a married man who took advantage of a single mom." Yankees officials declined to comment on the case.

Through spokesman Chris Giglio, Cashman said only that he is "very grateful that this matter is in the hands of law enforcement."

Neathway sometimes called and texted Cashman more than 10 times a night and threatened to harm someone he knew, prosecutors said.

A British native who also goes by Louise Meanwell, Neathway is still on probation stemming from a 2008 trespassing conviction in a New Jersey case that involved allegations of stalking and sending someone as many as 200 text messages in a weekend, and she has an open 2010 Manhattan harassment case, Assistant District Attorney Eric Iverson said.