Steven Thomas Faber, 48, had harassed the female victim, whom he had dated for five weeks, by repeatedly sending her text messages and visiting her house in the middle of the night, according to Randall C. Fudge, Long Beach assistant city prosecutor. There was evidence of over 50 contacts Faber made with the victim after a court had issued a restraining order prohibiting him from contacting her, Fudge said. The contacts included text messages, social-media postings, emails and letters left on her porch and car windshield.
In a phone interview with the Signal Tribune just before press time Thursday afternoon, Haubert said it is unusual for a judge to issue such a harsh sentence in a stalking case that does not involve actual violence, but he suggested the stiff ruling could be the result of Faber’s ignoring the original restraining order.
“The defendant was sentenced to six and a half years in county jail, and the judge also issued a 10-year protective order,” Haubert said. “The defendant’s attorney argued for a lesser sentence because there was no violence committed by the defendant. However, since the defendant had repeatedly violated court orders and caused extreme fear in the victim, a more serious sentence was clearly appropriate. Prosecutor Nadine Dahdah did an excellent job of presenting each act committed by the defendant, and the jury convicted him of all 13 counts.”
Fabar’s harassment began after the victim ended their seven-week relationship. She obtained a restraining order against him four days later, fearing for her safety after the many contacts, Fudge said.
Faber violated the restraining order approximately 50 times over the next five months, causing the victim to disconnect both her personal and work cell phones and delete all social-media accounts, according to Haubert’s office.
In her impact statement, which Haubert provided to the Signal Tribune on the condition that the victim’s name not be published, the woman described how she felt shame, anxiety, anger, depression, self-doubt, powerlessness, confusion and fear when Faber turned her “once peaceful and hopeful life, filled with friends, into a life of maddening hypervigilance, fear and distrust.”
The victim referred to Faber as a habitual liar who lacks remorse and takes no responsiblity for the pain he inflicted on her and others.
“His lack of respect for boundaries and his sense of entitlement was evident when he continually ignored both Judge Pacheco’s and Judge Luna’s orders to stay away from me, as well as the demands of Detective Rudy Romero and two other Long Beach police officers to leave me alone,” she said. “Even Judge Luna’s direct warning that he faced jail time if he defied her orders did nothing to deter Steve Faber. In total, that man violated court orders to stay away from me no less than 68 times. This man, whom I never really knew, arrogantly placed his need for control and power above my distress and above the law.”
She said that she and her son will inevitably need to move from their beloved neighborhood because, as an unemployed, full-time student, her options to relocate are currently limited. She added that, alhough she is set to graduate in a year, she will spend the two years after graduation earning the hours necessary to obtain a license that will allow her to work out of state.
She said the shame she has carried was that of being a victim, having worked hard since her divorce to become the heroine, not the victim, of her life story. Suddenly and unwittingly, she said, she was “shoved back into the role of a victim” by a man she knew less than two months.
“That shame, I realize now, was never my burden to carry,” she said. “It is Steve Faber’s shame. He is the person who repeatedly broke the law and tormented me. He is the one who went too far in his actions, who viciously sucker-punched himself, who made his own situation worse and who ruined his own life. That shame belongs to you, Steve. It is yours to carry now.”
The victim said the defendant had psychologically abused her by wreaking havoc upon her sense of safety and her sanity.
“But I am also a survivor,” she said. “I was a survivor long before I met Steve Faber, and I will continue to be one for the remainder of my life.”
