Judge Rules Obsessed Fan Is Competent : Court: Man who hounded champion ice skater Katarina Witt may represent himself in trial.

A federal magistrate ruled Monday that a man accused of sending threatening and obscene letters to Olympic champion ice skater Katarina Witt is mentally competent to stand trial and can act as his own attorney.

U.S. Magistrate Ronald Rose set a preliminary hearing for Harry Veltman III, 47, for Jan. 17 in U.S. District Court here. Veltman, of Westminster, faces three counts, one of sending obscene letters through the mail and two of sending threatening letters through the mail. Each count carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

FBI agents arrested Veltman Dec. 26, the day before Witt was scheduled to appear at the Forum, in Inglewood. Veltman, who has a history of psychological problems, was arrested once before, in January, 1991, for throwing sexually threatening letters on the ice as Witt skated before a crowd in Denver. However, he was not prosecuted in that case.

During Monday’s proceeding, Veltman asked to defend himself but later expressed doubts about doing so.

Rose said he would give Veltman the option of changing his mind later to allow a federal public defender handle the case.

Outside the courtroom, Veltman’s mother, Betty J. Hall of Westminster, handed reporters a statement from her son asking Witt for forgiveness, saying he never meant any of the letters to be threatening or obscene. He asked her to drop the charges against him.

“I can see why Katarina Witt might consider some of my letters to be threatening, but I never meant them as a threat,” the statement said. “And I can see why she might consider some of my letters to be obscene, but I think of them as erotic love letters attempting to cause her to lust for me so that she might begin to love me . . . then marry me and stand with me as a prophet of God.”

Hall said her son dictated the statement to her on the telephone last weekend from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Los Angeles, where he is being held without bail.

According to the complaint against him, Veltman has sent 60 unsolicited letters to Witt in Germany since July, 1990, along with nude and erotic photos of himself.

He claimed in one letter that he had visited Witt’s home and hidden behind a tree after leaving a bundle of letters at her doorstep.

Hall said her son first saw Witt on television when she was skating in the Olympics.

“He was obsessed with her,” Hall said, adding that her son is “a good person” but needs help because he is mentally ill. She said she is upset that he is being allowed to represent himself.

Hall said her son’s years of working as a crop-duster and spraying poison in 100-degree-plus temperatures may be responsible for his condition.

During Monday’s hearing, both defense attorney Dean Steward and Assistant U.S. Atty. Wayne Gross agreed with a medical evaluation that concluded that Veltman understands the charges against him and is competent to stand trial. However, the report also said that Veltman suffers from chronic psychotic mental illness.