Ex-Husband's Wife Received 6 Letters
By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 7, 2008
An Arlington County victims advocate and mother of twins pleaded guilty yesterday to threatening to torture and kill her ex-husband's wife and two toddlers after she found the woman on a local online chat group for young mothers.
Jennie L. Altieri, 36, a victims services specialist at the Washington-based National Center for Victims of Crime, admitted that she sent six handwritten, anonymous letters to her ex-husband's wife, threatening to kill her and the couple's two young sons in a "vicious, sexual" way, according to the prosecution. She also sent letters to associates of the wife, calling her a child molester.
Altieri faced up to 10 years in prison on two felony counts of making threats of death or bodily injury. She was sentenced to enter a therapy program for inmates, Arlington's Addiction Corrections Treatment, which lasts four to six months. Once she completes the program, she will be on supervised probation for three years.
Altieri has been held without bond at the county jail since her arrest Nov. 19.
Circuit Court Judge James F. Almand also ordered Altieri to have no contact with her ex-husband, Paul Kalchbrenner, or his wife, Meagan Kalchbrenner, and to pay Meagan Kalchbrenner approximately $3,000 in damages.
"I'm so sorry I scared them," Altieri said to the judge, choking back tears. She said she realized nothing she could say could "ease the pain" she had caused.
Defense attorney Nina Ginsberg said Altieri had a "long history of drug addiction that started with pain medication."
"We're relieved that we have some closure, that it's over," Meagan Kalchbrenner, 32, said after the plea. She said she had no comment on Altieri's apology.
"It was frightening," Kalchbrenner said of the experience. She said she "didn't know what to think" when she started receiving the letters.
Altieri worked for the past seven years as a victims services specialist, said Mary Lou Leary, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, which assists people across the United States. She was an employee in good standing, one of 32 at the center, Leary said. She had been on administrative leave but was terminated yesterday with the conclusion of the legal proceedings. Leary said the center had "absolutely no indication this was going on."
"Everybody at the center is really grieved by this whole tragedy," Leary said. "Of all places, we know how traumatizing it is for victims to go through something like this. We hope that the victims of this crime will be able to fully recover."
Altieri and Kalchbrenner divorced in 1999 after five years of marriage; they had no children. Both remarried and had two children each.
The Kalchbrenner boys are 1 and 3. Altieri and her husband have 3-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.
Deputy Chief Commonwealth's Attorney Theo Stamos said Altieri sent the letters, in which she said "knives were to be used," after she discovered Meagan Kalchbrenner in the Mothers of North Arlington group. Stamos said both women were members of the online chat group, through which mothers trade child-rearing techniques and parenting stories.
Stamos said that during a chat session, Altieri noticed Meagan Kalchbrenner's name. Soon afterward, she began sending the letters. The first letter arrived in June, Stamos said.
Paul Kalchbrenner said the anonymous letters "came out of the blue." He said that he and his wife, who used to teach kindergarten at Nottingham Elementary School in North Arlington, went to the police, whose investigation led to Altieri.
"I've had no contact with her for the past five years and very little contact since the divorce," said Paul Kalchbrenner, a lawyer. He said he had "no understanding" of why she sent the letters. "I don't know what's going on with her," he said. "She's pretty sick."
In an affidavit for a warrant to search Altieri's husband's car, police said they were looking for information about Kalchbrenner, his wife or the Kalchbrenner children; any photo, drawing or literature relating to torture, bondage and sexual abuse crimes; and writing samples from Altieri. No evidence was seized in the search, records show.
Court records indicate that police also obtained a warrant, which has remained sealed, to search Altieri's home in North Arlington.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.