Stalker will stay under court's supervision for 40 years

A delusional woman who relentlessly stalked a prominent Dakota County family must serve a year in jail and 40 years on probation, a judge ordered Thursday.

That's the longest probation that Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said he's ever seen. For Judge Richard Spicer, it was a creative approach for a new breed of criminal: a cyberstalker.

The judge told Kaley Hennessy, 26, of Lakeville, that if she contacts the family again, she'll serve an 81-month prison sentence.

"This is just the beginning," Spicer said after the sentencing in Hastings. "The use of electronic technology is going to open the door to many more cases likes this."

Hennessy was obsessed with 31-year-old Jamie Belzer and her two young sons, court documents say. After Belzer's brother-in-law broke up with Hennessy, the obsession began. Hennessy would wait for Belzer near the family business and follow her. She made out false police reports and restraining orders, claiming Belzer was the stalker.

Belzer's doctor's office frequently reported someone trying to break into her medical records. Someone signed her up for dating services and raunchy porn sites. Her babies' photos were stolen, posted online and used as social media profile pictures by Hennessy when she posed as the kids' grandmother to send nasty e-mails to other relatives.

Hennessy set up false MySpace accounts in the names of the Belzers and their friends and even set up Twitter accounts in the names of Belzer's sons.

Spicer, prosecutors and investigators say the Internet has increasingly become the tool of stalkers, and the harassment of the Belzer family is an example of how bad it can become.

About four years ago, Lakeville police began investigating crimes against Belzer. Sheriff's deputies were soon probing harassment of other Belzers in Eureka Township.

"The unrelenting stalking, tormenting, terrorizing, impersonating and computer hacking, and criminal activities, both in person and technologically over the past four years, has made my life absolutely miserable," Belzer said. "I live daily in fear for my children and myself."

Hennessy is a single mother and college student who called herself "Kaley Belzer" and falsely claimed on social media sites and elsewhere that she was in medical school, was a nurse, was getting married to a Belzer and was pregnant.

She's bipolar with borderline personality disorder, her attorney said, but is doing well in therapy and on medication. He asked for probation and electronic home monitoring.

Lives are forever changed

Belzer had asked that Hennessy be jailed for one year, followed by the 40 years on probation, rather than 81 months in prison with no probation. That's what prosecutor Tricia Loehr requested, telling Spicer that Hennessy was dangerous.

Loehr said Hennessy was in mental-health treatment for two years but remained delusional and paranoid. Hennessy has forever changed the lives of her victims, Loehr said.

"She's a predator in every sense of the word."

Backstrom, who met with the Belzer family after the sentencing, said use of the Internet for bullying and harassment "is on a steep increase, and it's very alarming."

Belzer had obtained three restraining orders, but they didn't stop the stalking. The probe found that Hennessy was trying to locate Belzer's daycare and preschool.

Preschools have called Belzer, saying they've received her application and want her to come for a tour, but she never applied, she said.

"Activities that might seem trivial and uncomplicated to others present serious complications and stress for me," Belzer said.

"I cannot enroll my sons in preschool or day-care, nor leave my children with anyone other than a family member for fear the perpetrator will continue to harass and stalk my children."

Her mother-in-law, Gloria Belzer, a former Eureka town supervisor, said that after experiencing cybercrimes personally, she intends to work with political representatives to strengthen laws to protect people of all ages.