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NYU Student Stalked and Threatened Liz Claiborne CEO, Police Say

By Murray Weiss | February 22, 2013 7:02am

GREENWICH VILLAGE — A New York University student was arrested for stalking and threatening the chief executive officer of Liz Claiborne after being fired from one of the clothier's Manhattan stores, sources told DNAinfo.com New York.

Naphtali Brooks, 21, of Somerset, N.J., was arrested Wednesday when he showed up at the Liz Claiborne headquarters at 1441 Broadway after allegedly sending dozens of threatening emails to the company’s CEO, William McComb, and other top executives.

After being fired from his job as the manager of the Lucky Brand Jeans at 172 Fifth Ave. earlier this month, Brooks allegedly sent threatening emails to McComb and other officers of Liz Claiborne, and called the Lucky Brand Jeans shop at least 10 times.

He threatened to find a way to “lower the value of the corporation's stock, threatened to go to the press and give the corporation a bad name,” according to a criminal complaint.

On Feb. 12, McComb personally instructed Brooks to stop “contacting him and any other corporate executive or employees of Liz Clairborne subsidiaries, Fifth and Pacific and Lucky Brand," the complaint says.

Brooks' “conduct has placed them in fear of bodily injury, in fear of harm to their business, careers and employment,” Detective David Locurto of the Midtown South Detective Squad said in court papers.

An NYU representative said Brooks is on voluntary leave from the university.

On Brooks' Facebook page, he mused, “It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

“In the long run,” he continued, “the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”

Brooks was arraigned Wednesday and released on his own recognizance, despite a request by prosecutors for $2,000 bail.

He did not immediately respond to requests for comment.