Woman Accused of Stalking Lindsey Buckingham Ordered to Undergo Mental Health Evaluation as Criminal Case Pauses

The criminal case against a woman charged with felony stalking of Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham has been put on hold after a Los Angeles judge ordered her to undergo a formal mental health evaluation.

The ruling, handed down Tuesday, will determine whether 55-year-old Michelle Dick is competent to stand trial on the seven charges she currently faces.

During Tuesday's hearing, Dick's public defender asked the court to allow Dr. Karine Shakib-Beltran, a clinical psychologist, to evaluate Dick while she remains in custody and to review her private medical history to assess whether she understands the nature of the charges against her.

Those charges, filed in April, include six felonies and one misdemeanor stemming from allegations that Dick assaulted Buckingham using a vehicle and threw an unknown substance at him as part of what prosecutors describe as a stalking campaign that stretched on for years.

Judge Robert S. Harrison, who oversees Los Angeles County's mental health court, granted the defense's request and appointed Dr. Shakib-Beltran to conduct the evaluation. The case had already been suspended last month after a different public defender raised concerns about whether Dick was able to meaningfully assist in her own defense.

Dick's arrest came in April, after authorities located her in Indiana following an alleged confrontation with Buckingham in Santa Monica on March 25, an encounter that prosecutors say violated an existing restraining order requiring her to stay away from the musician. She was later transported back to California, where she entered a not-guilty plea to all seven charges on May 6.

According to an amended criminal complaint, prosecutors allege that Dick repeatedly followed Buckingham and initiated unwanted contact with him over a period stretching from October 2021 to March of this year.

The most serious allegations center on an incident prosecutors say occurred on March 19, when Dick allegedly struck Buckingham with a motor vehicle. That same day, she is also accused of vandalizing his Mercedes-Benz S450, allegedly marking the vehicle with graffiti and other inscriptions.

Less than a week later, on March 25, prosecutors allege Dick tracked Buckingham to a location in Santa Monica, threw a substance at the 76-year-old musician, and then fled the scene. Buckingham was not injured in the incident.

Separately, Dick faces an additional felony charge accusing her of making a criminal threat against Buckingham in December 2024. That charge follows an earlier incident in November 2024 in which Buckingham accused Dick of "swatting" his home, a term referring to falsely reporting an emergency to prompt a heavy police response. According to court filings, Dick allegedly called 911 and claimed that Buckingham's son was suicidal and that gunshots had been fired at the family's home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, triggering a large-scale police response to the residence.

In a written statement submitted to the court, Buckingham described the experience of being handcuffed and questioned outside his own home while police searched the property for roughly 20 minutes, saying he was left shaken and afraid once officers determined nothing was wrong. Court filings state that an LAPD detective later traced the call to the same phone number and that Dick admitted to making it.

Buckingham has said the harassment began in 2021, initially taking the form of repeated phone calls and threats, along with claims from Dick that he was her father. He has also alleged that Dick targeted his family members and appeared outside multiple properties he owns in the Los Angeles area.

A judge granted Buckingham a restraining order in December 2024, requiring Dick to remain at least 100 yards away from him, his wife, and his son for a period of five years, and barring her from contacting the family or approaching their homes and vehicles.

Buckingham told the court that Dick had at one point parked outside a home he shares with his wife, prompting police to follow her from the location before eventually stopping and questioning her, an exchange that was captured on body-worn camera footage.

In his statement, Buckingham said Dick made rambling claims during that encounter about him being her father and having mistreated her as a child. He also said subsequent threatening messages were sent to his wife through Instagram, describing the toll the situation has taken on his family.

Buckingham rose to fame after joining Fleetwood Mac in 1974 alongside Stevie Nicks, his former partner in the folk-rock duo Buckingham Nicks. He went on to write and sing several of the band's best-known songs, including "Go Your Own Way." He parted ways with Fleetwood Mac in 2018 following a reported dispute over the scheduling of a world tour.

A follow-up hearing has now been scheduled for August 6, when the court will revisit the case based on the psychologist's findings.