Gless Fan Planned Suicide, Police Say : Obsession: An Orange County woman accused of breaking into the actress’s house had 500 rounds of ammunition, authorities say.

An obsessed fan who barricaded herself inside a Studio City house owned by actress Sharon Gless was armed with 500 rounds of ammunition and intended to sexually assault the actress before committing suicide, authorities said Tuesday.

Additionally, authorities said, during a burglary of the same residence a week before the standoff, Joni Leigh Penn, 30, of Santa Ana allegedly stole an address book in hopes of tracking down Gless at her Malibu home.

Los Angeles police Detective Chuck Hart said the book, which police discovered during a search of Penn’s car on Friday, did not contain the actress’s address.

Hart said that Penn admitted during an interview after her arrest that she planned to use the book to find Gless.

Penn pleaded not guilty Tuesday to two counts of burglary at her arraignment in San Fernando Municipal Court.

Commissioner Gerald T. Richardson, saying that Penn posed a danger to the community, denied bail.

Prosecutors had sought bail of $1 million because of the large amount of ammunition and because, they said, Penn’s letters were becoming increasingly threatening.

More than 120 letters were sent, authorities said.

Penn surrendered to police after a seven-hour standoff Friday inside the unoccupied house, which Gless used as an office.

Penn had been under court orders not to harass the former star of the “Cagney and Lacey” television series.

Penn, a theater student at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, threatened to commit suicide and locked herself in a bathroom while police negotiators tried to persuade her to surrender, police said.

She was armed with a loaded .22-caliber AT-22 semiautomatic rifle that she had bought from an Orange County sporting goods store three to four months earlier, authorities said.

Penn continued to write to Gless after the restraining order was issued in November, 1988, authorities said.

In at least one of the letters, Penn said she would violate the order to be near the actress, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Myron L. Jenkins.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for April 12.

If convicted on both counts, Penn could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison, Jenkins said.

The restraining order told Penn to remain at least 1,000 yards from the actress and her immediate family.

Gless sought the order after receiving a letter from Penn’s Santa Ana psychiatrist that stated, “Although this patient has no destructive intent toward you, she did plan to shoot herself in front of you.”

Deputy Public Defender Richard J. Salas, who represented Penn during her brief arraignment, said his client did not pose a threat to the community and should be granted bail.

“I think the celebrity status of the victim is what caused her to get that high bail,” Salas said. “This woman has no type violence in her background. She has never attempted to do anything violent to Ms. Gless.”