Stalker of the Current's Mary Lucia receives probation and five-year restraining order

The stalker of Mary Lucia, a popular DJ on 89.3 the Current, received probation and a five-year restraining order Wednesday.

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Dan Allard had asked that Patrick Henry Kelly receive the maximum probationary term of five years, stay at least 10 blocks from Lucia's Minneapolis home and her St. Paul workplace, and pay restitution of $9,222.99.

District Judge William Koch agreed with all of those requests and also sentenced Kelly to 270 days in the county workhouse.

But because Kelly already had spent 197 days in jail, which exceeded the time he was bound to serve due to time off for good behavior, he was released Wednesday morning, according to a news release from the county attorney's office.

Kelly, 56, of Eden Prairie, agreed on Aug. 31 to plead guilty to stalking and terroristic threats. He began stalking Lucia in the summer of 2014.

By that July, she had taken out a restraining order against Kelly requiring him to stay away from Lucia; her employer, Minnesota Public Radio, and her home.

A month later, Kelly placed a plastic bag with a handwritten letter on the back step of her house; during his guilty plea he claimed that he had tossed it over her fence.

She took a seven-month hiatus from her job, returning to the air last month. Her first song was Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down."

On Wednesday, Lucia described, in the voice familiar to Twin Cities radio listeners, the devastating impact that her stalker had on her life. She then watched as he was sentenced.

According to the news release, Lucia sat at the prosecutor's table between her brother, Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg, and musician Jim Boquist, and delivered her impact statement to the court.

"For the record, LeBron James could not have thrown the letter over my fence and land it in the middle of my step," she said.

Lucia said that she had talked often during her 21 years at various Twin Cities radio stations about her love of animals, so she saw no red flags when a listener sent her an e-mail saying his dog had died. She sent him an e-mail back expressing sympathy.

But unlike most listeners, he continued to write her. Soon she was greeted at work with packages — 5 pounds of raw meat one time, then a photo of a masked man and later some children's toys.

"I would dread going to work to see what horror had been dropped off," Lucia said.

One day, she had a voice message on her cellphone from Kelly. She said it scared her, making her wonder how he got her private number and what other information he had. The rest of the summer was terrible for her, she said.

"I never opened my windows," Lucia told the court. "I jumped whenever the motion sensors went off. I triple-locked my doors. When I went to bed at night, I slept with a baseball bat and a cellphone near me."

Lucia said she could not sleep or eat and lost significant weight. Panic attacks sent her to the emergency room, and every time a stranger approached her at a rock concert she felt threatened.

"My whole sense of self is in question," she said. "It has left me feeling powerless."

Kelly does not know her, Lucia said, and never will. He is delusional, cannot leave her alone and is unaware of what he has done to her, she added.

"If he makes one more attempt to contact me, it will ruin his life," she concluded. "And for what?"

Kelly declined to say anything when it was his turn.

"I have already said enough at this time, thank you," he told the judge.

Koch laid out in detail the conditions of Kelly's probation, including the provision that he must leave immediately if Lucia happens to walk into a store or shopping center that he's visiting. Kelly said he understood.

Koch also ordered Kelly to undergo a mental health evaluation and cognitive skills training, and warned him that probation violations will bring him back before the court with the possibility of being sent to prison.

David Chanen • 612-673-4465