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Pop Diva Wants Troubled Fan Kept Away
submitted by: Lisa D.
source: The Bergen Record
Date: February 28, 2001
By JOHN CICHOWSKI, Staff Writer
A mental patient who escaped custody and mailed cards to Whitney Houston's home in Morris County may soon be legally restrained from contacting the pop diva in any way, if a judge can find a lawyer to represent the woman.
Superior Court Judge Kenneth C. MacKenzie agreed provisionally Tuesday to honor the Grammy winner's request for a hearing to determine whether a restraining order should be imposed on Desiree Weeks, 36, who fantasizes about being Houston's daughter.
"But we need to find representation for the defendant," MacKenzie told Houston attorney Bryan Blaney in his Morristown courtroom," and we have to figure out who's going to pay this lawyer."
The judge set a hearing for March 27, pending Blaney's preparation of a list of mental health attorneys who might be willing to take the case. It remained unclear who would pay for Weeks' representation.
Neither Houston nor Weeks appeared at Tuesday's brief hearing.
Neither is expected to appear at a second hearing March 9, when Houston's lawyers will ask representatives of the Bronx Psychiatric Center to present Weeks mental health records.
"We need to know more about this woman so my client can better understand any risk," said Blaney.
Tuesday's hearing marked the second time that Houston's lawyers sought a temporary restraining order against Weeks, who has sent cards, letters, a cake, and even underwear to the pop star's Mendham Township home and Fort Lee business office. Houston dropped legal action when the woman began psychiatric counseling, said Blaney.
But his client became unnerved when Weeks, who was being held voluntarily at the psychiatric center, eluded escorts while being treated at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, he said. Authorities said she was captured 11 hours later at her sister's home in the Bronx.
Messages on the cards referred to Houston, 37, as "mommy," and her daughter as "sis." One also mentioned marijuana-possession charges lodged against the pop star in Hawaii. Houston's daughter with husband Bobby Brown, Bobbi Kristina Brown, turns 8 on Sunday.
"I almost had to go to you... to the place where you were being questioned to help you," Blaney quoted Weeks from one of the cards.
"You are my world," he said, quoting from another.
The messages were sent while Weeks was a patient at the psychiatric center, added the lawyer. On at least one occasion in 1999, she attempted to visit Houston at her office, he said.
Outside MacKenzie's courtroom, Blaney tried to assure reporters that Houston was not seeking publicity or vengeance.
"My client is a wonderful mother, she loves her daughter, and she's only trying to protect her from any threat," he said. "She's very concerned that this woman was able to walk away."
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