38 marieclaire.com.au
The harassment ordeal
of Courtney and Steven
Allen, pictured with their
son, began in late 2012
and continues today
despite the court’s fine.I thought it was actually kind of funny,”
she says. They talked about gardening
and pets, soon progressing to video
chats. Both were married and he lived
in Arizona, but “it just kind of grew
from there,” Courtney remembers. “It
was a really strong friendship and then
turned into not a friendship.”
At the time, Steven worked long
hours as an IT instructor, often travel-
ling, and felt the stress of being the sole
breadwinner. Courtney was a stay-at-
home mum, afraid to leave her toddler
with babysitters, which only increased
her sense of isolation. Her relationship
with Zonis ofered “an escape”.
“He was charming. He told me
everything I ever wanted to hear about
how wonderful I was,” Courtney says.
“Because it was online, it was very easy
to not see warning signs.” She kept tell-
ing herself that they were just good
friends, even when he sent her a sex toy.
Nearly a year after Zonis joined the
alliance, Steven stumbled across an
exchange between Courtney and Zonis
that was explicit and mentioned their
videos. He confronted his wife, who was
furious but said she would stop commu-
nicating with Zonis. She could not keep
this promise and instead she moved the
relationship to her tablet, behind a pass-
word, giving Zonis a fake name.
Steven tried to put the infidelity
behind them, but when he discovered
that the relationship had, in fact, not
ended, he turned to the “infidelity sup-
port” website Marriage Builders, where
he found misguided advice. “Exposurehelps to prevent a recurrence of the of-
fence,” was the site’s controversial tip.
Steven told his and Courtney’s par-
ents about her online relationship. He
texted Zonis’ wife and contacted Zonis’
parents. “I would ask that you encour-
age your son to stop this afair before it
completely ruins our family,” he wrote.
Courtney was livid and Zonis was
outraged, although he tells the story of
their relationship diferently: after join-
ing the alliance, he noticed Courtney
talking about her husband in a disturb-
ing way, saying that Steven was
controlling and would punish her. Zonis
says Courtney became friends with him
and his wife, Jennifer, and denies that
either party ever sent explicit videos.
Steven’s story, he claims, led to his par-
ents writing him out of their will. “He
destroyed my family,” Zonis says, “just
to basically keep his own wife in line.”
If Steven hoped the exposure would
allow them to move on, it had the oppo-
site efect. The Allens received barrages
of virulent emails from Zonis’ account,
and one of Steven’s co-workers received
an email accusing Steven of assaulting
Courtney. When Steven told Courtney
that Zonis had sent it, she refused to
believe him. But she also felt cracks
forming in her relationship with Zonis
and asked for space to get her head
straight. She went back to work, seeking
more independence.
In the meantime, Steven – angry
about the message to his co-worker –
emailed Zonis, allegedly writing that
Zonis could “look forward to continuedexposures to people in your life”. Zonis
forwarded a copy of the email to Court-
ney, but when she read it she sensed
something was wrong. The writer
referred to their child as “her” son
instead of “our” son, and a boast about
his ability to manipulate her did not
sound like her husband.
In an act of trust, she and Steven
showed their emails to each other. She
saw that the version Zonis sent had been
edited. “That,” she said later, “was when
I turned to Steve and said, ‘I need help. I
don’t know how to get ... out of this.’”
Courtney demanded Zonis leave
her alone, then stopped responding at
all. But emails and calls continued, as
many as 20 a day; even Courtney’s
mother was getting calls. Zonis later
said he was calling the Allens to get an
apology that he could show his parents.
One night, as Courtney worked on a
sudoku puzzle in bed, she received an
email purporting to be from her hus-
band, who was next to her reading a
book. The next night, Steven’s mobile
dinged with a new email.
In March 2015, Courtney filed for a
protective order against Zonis, which
would make further contact a crime.
Steven filed for a similar order for him-
self and their son. Zonis and his wife
responded in kind by getting orders of
their own. Two days after Courtney’s or-
der was granted, an email arrived from
Zonis’ personal account: “Glad that
bullshit symbolic gesture is out of the
way,” it said. (Zonis denies writing this.)
No charges were filed. Kent police,
while sympathetic, “weren’t really
interested in something that was a mis-
demeanour protective order violation”,
Steven says. The Allens got the sense
that because Zonis was in Arizona, and
so much of the harassment was confus-
ing and anonymous, it was hard for
police in Kent to act.
So, at the end of March 2015, Court-
ney and Steven walked into the FBI’s
oce in Seattle to present their case.
Three months later, they received an
ocial letter stating, “We have identi-
fied you as a possible victim of a crime,”
informing them the FBI was investigat-
ing. Months passed with no word.
In early April, the Allens received a
package in the mail full of marijuana.
Detective Galetti informed the couple
there had been more Crime Stoppers