Skater Confronts Her Alleged Tormentor : Court: Katarina Witt testifies against man charged with sending her obscene and threatening letters. Acting as his own attorney, he cross-examines her.

By MATT LAIT

March 12, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SANTA ANA — Professional figure skater Katarina Witt testified Wednesday in federal court that a Westminster man accused of sending her obscene and threatening letters made her fear for her life.

“I believed he was going to kill me,” the Olympic gold medalist said at the conclusion of a two-day trial, during which she was cross-examined by the man charged with seven criminal counts of sending her the letters.

During her testimony, Witt rarely made eye contact with Harry Veltman III, who faces a maximum of 35 years in prison if convicted. The 47-year-old defendant, who has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, acted as his own attorney and seemed flustered during much of the trial, especially when cross-examining Witt.

At the conclusion of Witt’s testimony, both sides rested, and the case was given to the jury, which will resume its deliberations today.

Since his arrest last December, Veltman has denied trying to threaten Witt, saying that his letters, which described various sexual acts, were intended to be erotic, not obscene as prosecutors have charged. Along with more than 50 pages of letters mailed in 1990 and 1991, Veltman sent nude photographs of himself and sex brochures, prosecutors said.

On Wednesday, Witt, who was subpoenaed by prosecutors, was escorted into the courtroom surrounded by several federal marshals. Talking in a solemn manner, she told the jury that after the 1988 Olympics she received thousands of letters from fans.

But the correspondence she received from Veltman stood out from the others because they were frightening and odd.

“If was different fan mail,” she said. “It was really bizarre, saying he was going to be President and needed me for his campaign.”

In other letters, she said, he proclaimed his love for her, stating that he “considered me his wife” from the first moment he saw her.

She said she considered Veltman a very menacing presence when he unexpectedly showed up at her residence in Germany in the spring of 1990 and stalked her home, she testified.

At one point, she and her attorney “tried to trick” Veltman by putting a note on her door saying that she was going to the United States, she said. She left her house for a week, but when she returned Veltman was still there. According to prosecutors, Veltman even ejaculated on her doorstep.

Finally, Veltman did leave Germany, but the harassment didn’t end, the skater testified.

According to prosecutors, Veltman warned Witt in a letter not to have affairs with other men and to remain “chaste” for him. Other letters detailed acts of masturbation, sodomy, and oral sex, involving himself and Witt.

In one letter, he wrote that if his wife ever had an affair, he would kill her, her lover and then himself. She testified that she was frightened because she thought he considered her his unofficial wife.

In a particularly ominous passage from a letter in July, 1991, Witt said, Veltman wrote: “Don’t be afraid when God allows me to pull you out of your body to hold you tight. Then you’ll know that there is life beyond the flesh.”

Assistant U. S. Atty. Wayne Gross, who is prosecuting the case, called the passage “a death threat.”

But when Veltman stood at the podium to cross-examine Witt, he told her that he meant it as an “out of body” experience in a religious sense, or like a vision. He called it “astroprojection.”

Witt, who appeared straight-faced during most of the hearing, chuckled slightly at that point and said: “I do not want to leave my body.”

Veltman also tried to point out that the statements in the letter referring to what he would do to an unfaithful wife could not have been threatening to Witt because they were not married.

He also tried to convince Witt that his letters were inspired by his love for her. “I wrote erotic love letters,” he said.

For the most part, however, Veltman appeared to be confused by the court process. He had to be constantly reminded by U.S. District Court Judge Gary Taylor to ask questions and stop making irrelevant comments. Taylor twice instructed Veltman to call the witness “Ms. Witt” and stop referring to her as “Katarina.”

When the judge repeatedly told Veltman he could not ask Witt if she thought the letters were erotic, Veltman ended his questioning and declined to present a defense.