Fan Given 6 Years for Break-Ins at Gless Home

A woman described as an obsessed fan of actress Sharon Gless was sentenced Monday to six years in state prison after pleading no contest to twice breaking into Gless’ home with a loaded rifle.

Prosecutors said Joni Leigh Penn, 30, of Garden Grove, intended to sexually assault Gless and commit suicide in front of her.

But the Emmy Award-winning actress, who starred in the 1980s police drama “Cagney and Lacey,” was not at her Studio City home during either break-in last March.

Penn, whose trial was scheduled to start today, pleaded no contest to two felony counts of residential burglary with special allegations that she was armed with a firearm.

Despite an indirect plea from Gless that Penn be sentenced to the maximum of nine years and four months, Superior Court Judge John Major sentenced her to the six-year term.

The judge said he was giving Penn less than the maximum in part because she has expressed remorse for the break-ins. Deputy Public Defender Mitch Bruckner also pointed out that no one was injured during the break-ins and that Penn had no criminal record.

Penn will be eligible for parole in about three years.

Gless was not in court Monday. However, in a telephone conversation earlier Monday with Deputy Dist. Atty. Lori Dery, she asked Dery and co-prosecutor Ken Barshop to press for the maximum sentence.

“She is concerned for her safety and strongly felt that the defendant deserved the maximum term,” Dery said.

“She wants her (Penn) to be away from her as long as possible. She doesn’t want another similar situation to occur,” Dery said.

Before sentencing, Penn made a brief statement to the court in which “she apologized to Miss Gless and her family for any distress she caused them and reassured Miss Gless that she will be safe,” Dery said.

Dery said she hopes that while in prison, Penn will receive needed psychiatric counseling to break her fixation on the actress.

In a statement released after the March 30 break-in, Gless said: “These are horrendous times that we live in, especially when disturbed people have such easy access to weapons that can be used indiscriminately.”

Authorities have described Penn as an obsessed fan who is in love with Gless and whose nearly 100 letters to the actress prompted Gless to obtain a court restraining order against her in 1988.

Armed with a loaded .22-caliber rifle, Penn broke into Gless’ home on March 27 and stole her address book in an apparent attempt to locate other residences where the actress might live.

Penn again broke into the home through a window on March 30, and barricaded herself in the bathroom with the loaded weapon.

A police SWAT team, alerted by a silent alarm, was called to the scene and evacuated residences surrounding the actress’s secluded home. After seven hours of negotiations during which Penn repeatedly threatened to kill herself, she surrendered. Police confiscated a rifle and an ammunition clip containing 13 bullets.