
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 21, 1995                   TAG: 9511210109
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAIL THIEF WHO CAN'T HELP IT LIKELY WILL GET PROBATION

A 62-year-old woman diagnosed with an "irresistible impulse" to take other people's mail pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to mail theft as part of an agreement that likely will get her probation rather than prison time.

Ann Kennedy Dickens was caught in August with 450 pieces of mail belonging to her neighbors in Old Southwest.

By the terms of her plea agreement, Dickens will get no prison time but will be on probation for the maximum of five years. During that time, she will have to report to a probation officer who will supervise her.

Right now, Dickens is allowed to leave her apartment only on Wednesday and Friday evenings for walks in the neighborhood and all day Sundays, when there is no mail delivery. She also is allowed to leave for appointments with permission from her probation officer.

Although her sentence is up to a judge, the government has said it will ask for no prison time because it "is not an appropriate penalty for this offense," according to the plea agreement.

This is the third time since 1990 that Dickens has been arrested for stealing her neighbors' mail. In 1990, postal inspectors found more than 5,000 pieces of mail taken from around her Pebble Creek apartment in Southwest Roanoke County. The prosecutor dropped the charge after she was found to be insane when the thefts occurred.

In 1993, Dickens was arrested again with 400 pieces of mail from Walnut Avenue Southeast. She agreed to get help and was put into a pretrial diversion program. The court found then that she had a history of psychiatric disorders and unspecified mental health problems that cannot be treated on an outpatient basis.

This time, Dickens was found sane at the time of the offense and competent to stand trial, although her attorney, Sharon Chickering, told the judge that Dickens was diagnosed with an irresistible impulse to take mail.

She has been assigned a doctor to ensure that she takes medication. Dickens is unemployed and lives alone in Briskwood Apartments on Third Street.

According to a postal inspector, Dickens would take mail put out for collection in the morning and take delivered mail later in the day, after the carrier had made his rounds. She took bills, letters, magazines and even junk mail and kept it neatly stacked in a back room, unopened.

Her sentencing is set for Feb. 21.

by CNB