A 34-year-old Bremerton man accused of harassing state Rep. Michelle Caldier – a Republican who represents the 26th Legislative District — after he was warned and then ordered to stop contacting her, has pleaded guilty to felony stalking charges. Kitsap County prosecutors have recommended the man be sentenced to 17 months in prison.

Isaiah Richard Long pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking in Kitsap County Superior Court on March 1 and is scheduled to be sentenced March 24.

The harassment dates back to early 2021, according to court documents.

Caldier told the Kitsap Sun that she feels safe with Long in jail but noted that eventually he will be released from custody and said she is considering her options for ways to defend herself.

"I didn't do anything to provoke this," she said. "I do know that if it's not me, it will be another woman, it will absolutely be somebody else."

She referenced the situation in a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives on Tuesday night as she spoke against House Bill 1143, a measure that would require those acquiring firearms to first complete a safety training program. Caldier, noting her vision impairment, argued that the measure would keep her from purchasing a firearm, something she said she was considering.

“It has been awful,” she said of the situation. “And for the first time ever in my life, I am thinking about owning a gun to protect myself, because it is my right to bear arms. He showed up at my father’s house not once, not twice, but three times. That’s scary. I’ve never met the guy, it’s just because I have this position.”

Long was initially charged with one count of stalking in October last year, and prosecutors added a second count as the case went to trial in late February. Long pleaded guilty to both charges shortly after jury selection began as part of a plea agreement.

“While the defendant never made any overt threats to Ms. Caldier, the extreme number of messages he left, the immense range of emotion he displayed, as well as his unpredictable behavior gives serious cause for alarm,” deputy prosecuting attorney Albert Didcock wrote in a court filing. “Unsurprisingly, Ms. Caldier was in fact afraid for her safety.”

Long was charged after calling and leaving voicemails in violation of a protection order she sought last year, according to court documents. Long was found to be a credible threat to her, and he was served with an anti-harassment order prohibiting contact with the lawmaker in September.

Speaking with a Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy, Caldier reported that she had been receiving concerning phone calls from Long for a “significant” amount of time and said she sought the order after Long went to her father’s home and asked for pictures of her. She further said that Long again went to her father’s home after a temporary order was granted in July.

“She said that she was getting so many calls that she completely stopped answering the phone if she didn’t recognize the phone number,” the deputy wrote in a report. “During the calls, Isaiah’s behavior was erratic and unpredictable. Sometimes he would sing to her and appear happy, confessing his love to her. Others, he would become angry and yell wanting to know why she didn’t meet him or why she hasn’t moved in with him.”

Caldier reported calls from Long to the Washington State Patrol in March 2021, July 2021 and February 2022, according to a March 2022 report written by a State Patrol detective in Thurston County. The lawmaker reported that Long’s “odd” and “creepy” contacts began in February or March 2021 and that even after a State Patrol representative called him to tell him to stop, he continued. Caldier’s legislative assistant reported coming into work following one weekend during the 2021 legislative session to find about 50 voicemails that had been left by Long.

“In September 2021, Caldier was receiving 10 to 20 calls, voicemails, and text messages a day,” the State Patrol investigator wrote in the March 2022 report. “Representative Caldier now has received more than 200 messages from Isaiah Long.”

In an interview with Long at his parents’ home in Bremerton, Long told State Patrol investigators that he saw his relationship with the lawmaker as “pen pals and he considers her a good friend.” Caldier and Long spoke on the phone at one point, and the lawmaker told him to stop contacting her.

“Isaiah Long said he does not plan to contact her again and is kind of mad at her and thinks she is a b----,” the detective wrote in the March 2022 report, concluding then that he believed that with repeated calls, voicemails and text messages, there was evidence Long had committed a felony-level violation of the state’s telephone harassment law. The detective then noted two January 2022 restrictive orders that were on file against Long protecting two other people, one a protection order, the other a stalking protection order.

"I can handle someone who's upset or wants things to happen with government that isn't realistic, and I understand that," Caldier said to the Kitsap Sun. "But I've never had anyone really, truly threaten me. To have somebody you've never met before believe they have a relationship with you and be upset because you're not with them, I don't know what their state of mind is."

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bremerton man pleads guilty to stalking Rep. Michelle Caldier