Editor’s Note: On March 2, a state judge dismissed the criminal stalking charge against meteorologist Andrew Clarke. An updated version of the story can be found here. This note is in accordance with The Desk’s ethics policy, which is available to read here. The original story is available below:
A television meteorologist with a Nexstar Media Group station in Alabama was arrested over the weekend following a claim of stalking.
Andrew Alexander Clarke, 23, was taken into custody by police in Dothan City about an hour after appearing on a late-evening newscast for ABC affiliate WDHN (Channel 18) in Dothan.
According to reports, police received a complaint from a woman that Clarke was following her outside her job and, at one point, showed up to the woman’s apartment complex. She was able to obtain a misdemeanor warrant from a local court, and police took Clarke into custody late Saturday evening.
Clarke was jailed on suspicion of second-degree stalking, a misdemeanor in Alabama. If he is convicted, he could face up to six months in jail and a $3,000 fine, though a judge will determine a sentence based on a number of factors, including Clarke’s character, a victim impact statement and any prior criminal history.
Clarke was hired by Nexstar’s WDHN in June 2021 to work as the station’s weekend meteorologist, a job he juggled with his freelance work as a local DoorDash driver. He joined the station from WRBL (Channel 3), Nexstar’s CBS affiliate in Columbus, Georgia, where he worked as an intern in 2019 before re-joining the station as a fill-in meteorologist the following year.
