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Michael Ghali, 35, has been sentenced to 38 months in prison after pleading guilty to cyberstalking a woman he knew from church and then threatening head of a medical department at a Maryland medical facility.
According to his plea agreement, beginning in June 2020, the Fairfax resident sent his first victim series of sexually explicit and threatening text messages using an app that allows users to acquire phone numbers to send text messages that they don’t want to be associated with their actual number.
At the same time, he sent his second victim, the head of a medical department at a Baltimore-based hospital, emails from addresses specifically created to send threats accusing him of of sexually abusing employees and minors, purporting to have photos of the abuse.
Prosecutors say that Ghali demanded he resign from the position at the hospital, threatening to go to the press with the alleged incriminating photos. They made note that he was familiar with Ghali, who had "previously completed a short medical rotation at the hospital."
The first victim reported the incidents to the Anne Arundel County Police Department to obtain a protective order, while the second hired a professional security detail after getting an email threatening his life and the lives of his grandchildren.
He also had to change his surgical and other schedules as a precaution after learning that Ghali had been charged in Fairfax in 2019 for brandishing an AR-15 assault rifle within 1,000 feet of a school.
Two weeks later, on July 21, 2020, the hospital obtained a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Ghali on behalf of the employee.
The investigation led police to Ghali, and during a search of his home in August that year, multiple weapons and ammo was recovered.
A review of two seized Apple iPhones also found a social media page Ghali created in which he posted photos of individuals, including the doctor with sexually explicit captions.
Ghali went on to purchase another iPhone - in violation of the protective orders - and began to again pester both hospital workers until he was later arrested and charged.
He's been in custody since.
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