Tormenting Neighbor Promises To Sell Her Home, Never Return
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A White Bear Lake woman who has been harassing her neighbors for years will be spending 90 days in the workhouse and won't be returning to her neighborhood.
Judge George Stephenson found Lori Christensen, 49, guilty Wednesday of violating her probation from an earlier felony harassment conviction. In that case, she spent 53 days in jail over the holidays.
In court, Christensen promised to sell her home and never return to the neighborhood. She asked for leniency, but Stephenson sentenced her to 90 days in the workhouse, ordered her not to come within a mile of her home, told her to undergo counseling and to serve probation for 4-and-a-half years.
White Bear Lake Police say Christensen's behavior had resulted in 80 calls to police from Kim and Greg Hoffman as well as other neighbors. Home video shot by the Hoffman family shows Christensen making and hanging large signs on her garage, targeting the Hoffmans. The signs said things like "losers" and "Rat Queen, Break a Leg."
The Hoffman family has three children, ages 9, 10 and 15. They live across a cul-de-sac from Christensen. Kim and Greg Hoffman said the constant harassment was a daily strain on their family -- something that even led to personality changes in the family's young girls.
Court records detail years of torment. Once, Christensen made masturbatory gestures to Greg Hoffman and his then 8-year-old daughter. She repeatedly taunted Kim Hoffman, who is a recovering alcoholic, by singing to the Hoffman children: "What do you do with a drunken mother?" She also hung a sign that read: "I saw Mommy kissing a breathalyzer."
Chief Lynne Bankes, of White Bear Lake Police, said in all her 25 years as a police officer, she hasn't seen anyone who held such hate for another human being.
Greg Hoffman said he couldn't wait to tell his kids they won't have to live near Christensen.
"We are going to celebrate tonight," he said. "It'll be just a very happy occasion: Everyone is going to be thrilled."
Christensen will report to jail on Monday. She will continue to be a state employee, holding a $51,000-a-year salary as an executive assistant for the Metropolitan Council.
No one from the council would comment on the case.
Christensen would not answer any questions from reporters Wednesday.
