Ammo Pile Found in Gless Siege

A Santa Ana woman who barricaded herself inside a house owned by actress Sharon Gless was armed with 500 rounds of ammunition, prosecutors said Tuesday.

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

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

Penn, whom police described as an obsessed fan, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to two counts of burglary at her arraignment in San Fernando Municipal Court. If convicted on both counts, Penn could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison, prosecutors said.

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

Penn surrendered to police after a seven-hour standoff Friday inside the unoccupied house, which Gless uses as an office. Penn 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 had written more than 120 letters to Gless that had become increasingly threatening, prosecutors said. In November, 1988, a court ordered Penn not to harass the former star of the “Cagney and Lacey” TV series or come within 1,000 yards of the actress and her family.

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

The arrest and unfolding charges shocked Penn’s classmates at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, where Penn studied drama and attended an acting class just hours before breaking into Gless’ home.

Students and instructors at Golden West’s theater department said they are perplexed by the news, saying that everything appeared normal as Penn left a beginning-drama class Thursday afternoon.

Penn was earning an A in the course and never missed a day of class, instructor Charles Mitchell said.

“I was watching the news Friday and there she was,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t believe it. I thought it had to be a mistake.”