DATE: Wednesday, October 22, 1997           TAG: 9710220479
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   45 lines

CONVICTED STALKER'S JAIL SENTENCE SUSPENDED; COUNSELING ORDERED

A judge on Tuesday sentenced a 56-year-old woman to six months in jail, all suspended, and ordered her to get mental counseling and have no contact of any kind with a woman she was convicted of stalking.

The victim, Kitty Sue Hannah, a Portsmouth Realtor, testified briefly at the sentencing about how the actions of Kathleen Powell had affected her career.

During the trial, Hannah had testified that Powell followed her and made threatening phone calls, and another witness testified that Powell had talked about hiring someone to kill Hannah.

The victim said she now constantly wonders if the stranger she is showing a house to is the person who is supposed to hurt her.

She often pulls her husband away from his job to go with her, Hannah testified.

But the defense attorney, Ashley Keesee, told Judge Von L. Piersall that her client had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Keesee asked that he give Powell supervised probation that provided for outpatient therapy to help her deal with ``mood swings and impulse control.''

Asked to stand for sentencing, Powell interrupted the judge, then began crying when he chastised her for speaking out of turn.

When allowed to speak, she delivered a weepy and rambling discourse on her problems. Powell said she lost her mother in 1995, then found out she had cancer.

A doctor, she said, told her she had three months to live.

She asked the judge to ``just please believe me if you've got a heart and love the Lord.''

The judge interrupted her twice, once to remind her the case already had been tried and again to tell her to stop repeating herself.

Powell, a Portsmouth resident, had been convicted in General District Court and appealed the conviction in Circuit Court in March.

She is one of only five local women convicted of stalking since 1992. ``I was told by a couple of people that she probably wouldn't get jail time because of her mental condition,'' Hannah said after the sentencing. ``Of course, where does that leave me? Still looking over my shoulder.

``I don't want to put anybody in jail, but I don't know what's going to stop it.'' KEYWORDS: STALKING

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