Man Arrested After Leaving His Number For Taylor Swift At Her Rhode Island Home, His Son Speaks Out
August 22, 2013 by Lindsay Cronin
Taylor Swift’s Rhode Island home has once again been targeted by one of her many super-fans. Just three months after a man was arrested following an attempt at swimming to her property, another man has been arrested for delivering a note with his number on it to her security team.
According to a new report, Joseph Bernatche of Portland, Maine, was arrested and accused of trespassing at Swift’s $17.75 million Rhode Island property on July 27 after arriving to the home and handing a security guard the note which included his phone number and a message for Taylor in which he requested she call him.
In a statement, Bernatache’s lawyer has spoken out, denying that his client has broken any laws. “We deny that Mr. Bernatche was ever on Ms. Swift’s property,” attorney Michael J. Robinson tells Radar Online. “The security guards have a job to do and I don’t blame them. They do what they think they have to do. In this case, I think they were just being overly zealous, overly cautious.”
In Robinson’s statement, he recounts Bernatche’s journey to Swift’s home as follows:
“Mr. Bernatche showed up and parked at the house next to Taylor Swift’s. He was carrying a note [with his phone number on it]. He signals to the security guard to come down and hands him the note. He says, ‘I’m not here to trespass, I’m just here to deliver this note. If you would kindly give this to Taylor Swift, that’s my sole purpose for being here.’ The security guard reads the note, gets the license plate, and my client walks away.[Bernatche] was driving away from Ms. Swift’s property when he was stopped and arrested by the Westerly Police.”
“We don’t think that the town is going to be able to prove willful trespassing on the property,” Robinson states. And even if they did, Robinson says he would be “totally shocked” if Bernatche received jail time.
After receiving word of the incident, Radar contacted Bernatache’s son who appeared totally shocked at what his 55-year-old father had done. “Oh my god, really?! I’m flabbergasted. He talks about Taylor all the time, but I can’t believe he did this,” Brian Bernatache stated. “I talked to him last night and he didn’t even mention it! He likes her music and whatnot, and he tries to go to her concerts, but I didn’t know he was like, that into her. This is kind of embarrassing! What the heck! He must have driven down there to do this without telling anyone. How strange.”
Bernatache has plead not guilty and will appear in front of a judge tomorrow morning in Rhode Island.