Benson, stalker of Jerry Lewis, due out of prison early

Jerry Fink and Jean Reid Norman

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 1999 | 12:12 p.m.

Gary Benson was scheduled to be released from prison today after serving 4 1/2 years in prison and mental institutions for stalking entertainer Jerry Lewis.

Benson, a 56-year-old diagnosed chronic schizophrenic, was scheduled to be released next week, but because of time off for good behavior earned in his last month in prison, his release date was moved to today, state prison spokesman Howard Skolnik said.

Benson has been earning about 10 days a month, Skolnik said.

At a hearing last week in Las Vegas before Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti, Lewis asked the court to further extend a temporary protective order first issued against Benson in 1992.

Togliatti granted the request.

"Mr. Benson, I cannot tell you where to go ... but do not attempt to contact Mr. Lewis by phone, e-mail, cellular ... skywriting," Togliatti told Benson.

The judge barred Benson from making any contact with Lewis through Sept. 21, 2000. She warned him not to go near Lewis' home or his office. If he does, she said he faces felony stalking and contempt of court charges.

In 1995 Benson was sentenced to six years in prison. But, Lewis and court records say that the harassment continued when Benson was on probation, resulting in the revocation of Benson's probation in 1998, which sent him back to prison.

He was to be released today from the Southern Nevada Correctional Center at Jean. It is considered a complete sentence because good behavior time reduces flat-time prison sentences.

Benson served some of his time in lockdown mental health facilities and some of his time on probation attending outpatient clinics.

Benson's attorney, public defender Terrence Jackson, told Togliatti that Benson has made arrangements to take a flight out of the state the day he is released from prison. Last year Benson told the Sun he intends to settle in Salt Lake City with a woman he married while on probation.

Once free Benson will be required to do just two things -- not go near Lewis and to register as an ex-felon with the sheriff in the community where he decides to live. Because he served what is considered a full sentence, Benson will not be required to report to a parole officer or to the court.

The Lewis stalking case played a key role in the passage of a bill this year before the Nevada Legislature that upped the maximum aggravated stalking penalty to 15 years. Benson's six-year sentence was the maximum under the old law.

The stalking began in 1989 when Lewis obtained for his then-housekeeper a lengthy police record on Benson after she told Lewis she planned to marry Benson. She in turn told Benson about the report, which sparked a string of harassing phone calls to Lewis' home and office. Lewis' ex-housekeeper married Benson. They later divorced.