Board denies parole for stalker of Lewis

State parole commissioners have voted unanimously to keep behind bars the man convicted of stalking and threatening the life of entertainer Jerry Lewis.

"I got some really good news today from the parole board," Lewis said when reached Wednesday night at his Las Vegas home. "That's all I'm going to tell you."

The board voted 4-0 on Wednesday to deny Gary Benson's request for parole. Parole officials said today that Benson has been informed of the ruling.

The parole board on Monday heard Benson's plea to be set free from the Desert Correctional Center at Indian Springs, where he has spent less than three months.

The decision to deny parole was swift -- it was not expected until seven to 10 days after the hearing. However, parole commissioners are not required to wait any specific length of time in making a ruling.

Although Benson, who has been diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia, was convicted of aggravated stalking in 1995 and given the maximum of six years, he has spent most of it in mental-health facilities, Veterans Affairs outpatient clinics, group homes and the Clark County jail.

Lewis said last week that he has continued to receive threats to his life and the life of his 6-year-old daughter.

Lewis, 72, did not appear at Monday's parole hearing at the prison. Instead, he met with board members last Friday to express his fears.

Despite Wednesday's decision, Benson, because of time off for good behavior and other factors, will max out his sentence in August and be set free.

"I'm not a threat to Jerry Lewis or his family or society," Benson, 55, told the parole board on Monday during a 45-minute interview. "I want to leave that behind. I want to be with my wife and start a new life."

While on probation in February, Benson said, he got married and had attempted to settle in Salt Lake City. But he was arrested and brought back to Las Vegas for failing to remain in counseling programs.

In July, District Court Judge Michael Douglas revoked Benson's probation amid reports that he continued to threaten Lewis and his family. Douglas sent Benson to prison to serve the last three years of his sentence.

When Lewis learned that Benson was coming up for parole so quickly, he was enraged and frightened.

"The balance of his prison sentence now could wind up being just 12 weeks," Lewis, a Las Vegas resident of 19 years, told the Sun. "I am incensed and stressed out (by this). I want the system to work for me and for others."

Apparently, it did -- at least from Lewis' perspective.

Lewis has long taken the threats seriously -- so much so, he says, that he has spent $70,000 to $80,000 a month on round-the-clock protection on top of the normal security measures an entertainer of his status takes.

Benson's plea bargain allowed his prison sentence to be suspended on the condition that he attend mental-health counseling. But he bounced in and out of lockdown and outpatient facilities in California, Arizona and Utah over the next three years.

Of the 1,100-plus days that Benson has spent in custody, a number of them were at the Lake's Crossing Center for the Mentally Disordered Offender in Sparks.

Two months after his conviction, Benson was jailed for a short time after reportedly telling a doctor at a VA psychiatric clinic in San Diego that he heard voices telling him to kill Lewis.

At Monday's hearing, Parole Commissioner Michael Harris expressed concern about Benson's inability to stay on probation for any length of time.

"If I were to say to you that, from reading your file, it looks like you have failed miserably every time and that you were not a good parole risk, what would you say?" Harris asked Benson.

Benson responded that he was less of a risk now because he would go to a VA hospital to try to become mentally and physically stable.

All inmates are assured of two parole hearings before their official release dates. But because Benson's date of release is less than a year away, Benson had both of his requests heard Monday, and now he must wait to be released in August.

At Monday's hearing, parole commissioners also questioned Benson about his police record, which included charges of credit-card fraud and check fraud as well as an armed bank robbery and his relationship with Lewis over the past three years.

Benson began stalking Lewis in 1989 after Lewis gave his housekeeper, to whom Benson was engaged, a copy of Benson's police report. Benson later married and divorced the woman.

Benson told the parole board that originally he had wanted Lewis to apologize for giving the woman the report, but he said the last contact he had with Lewis was in 1994 in a telephone conversation.

archive