Lewis’ stalker makes pitch for parole

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 1998 | 10:52 a.m.

Gary Benson, a man convicted of stalking entertainer Jerry Lewis, will find out in a week to 10 days whether he will become a free man. Benson made his case for parole Monday at the Desert Correctional Center at Indian Springs.

"I'm not a threat to Jerry Lewis or his family or society," Benson told parole commissioners. "I want to leave that behind. I want to be with my wife and start a new life."

He spent about 45 minutes before the three commissioners.

Benson, 55, who has been diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia, was convicted of stalking Lewis in 1995 and was given a maximum six-year sentence. That sentence was suspended on the condition that he attend mental-health counseling.

For the next three years, he bounced in and out of facilities in California, Arizona and Utah, and his probation was revoked. Amid reports that Benson continued to threaten Lewis, District Court Judge Michael Douglas in July sentenced him to serve the last three years of the sentence in prison. Because the time he already had served in mental hospitals counts toward the remainder, Benson's sentence will expire next August.

Lewis met with the commissioners last Friday. He has said publicly that he still fears for the safety of his family and wants Benson kept behind bars.

Benson began stalking Lewis in 1989 after Lewis gave his housekeeper, to whom Benson was engaged, a copy of Benson's police report. Benson later married and divorced the woman. Benson remarried in February.

The commissioners questioned Benson about his police record, which includes charges of credit-card fraud and check fraud as well as an armed bank robbery and his relationship with Lewis over the past three years.

Benson told the board that originally he had wanted Lewis to apologize for giving the woman the report, but he said the last contact he had with Lewis was in 1994 in a telephone conversation.

Commissioner Michael Harris also was concerned about Benson's ability to stay on probation for any period of time.

"If I were to say to you that, from reading your file, it looks like you have failed miserably every time and that you were not a good parole risk, what would you say?" Harris asked Benson.

Benson responded that he was less of a risk now because he wants to be with his wife and that he would go to a Veteran's Administration hospital to try to become mentally and physically stable.

Benson, like all prisoners, is assured of two parole hearings before his official date of release. Because his date of release is less than a year away, the board will consider both of Benson's requests at the same time. If Benson is denied both, he will be released in August.

Harris said the board is treating the case as it would any other parole hearing.

"We don't get a whole lot of stalking cases," said Harris. "But what happened today was typical of a parole hearing."