The woman who sneaked on to MacDill Air Force Base four times in a three-month span was ordered held in jail pending a hearing into whether she is competent to face charges.
Suzanne Jensen, 50, also “presents a significant flight risk,” said Federal District Court Judge Anthony E. Porcelli in ordering Jensen held in a Pinellas County jail pending the competency hearing, scheduled for Aug. 21 at 12:15 p.m.
Aside from the charges against her in Tampa, Jensen was recently arrested in Colorado. The charges against her were not immediately available.
Jensen trespassed onto the base, home of U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command, between Oct. 1 and Jan. 4, according to federal court records. She told base security that she twice scaled fences, one time using an overturned garbage can as a ladder.
MacDill wasn’t Jensen’s first illegal foray onto a military installation. Twice in February 2003, she illegally entered Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base, according to federal records, but trespassing charges were dropped in 2007 due to prosecution discretion and “the staleness” of the case. On Dec. 6, 2011, she trespassed at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Fort Myer, Va., according to court records, and later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served.
Last month, federal prosecutors filed four charges of entering MacDill without permission and one count of using a military identification without permission against Jensen.
At her first appearance in federal court this afternoon, federal public defender Stephen Baer asked Porcelli if he could discuss bail issues at his bench because of “national security implications.” He did not elaborate.
He said that both a pre-trial services report and the MacDill security forces report presented information that Jensen may not be able to understand the proceedings against her and did not want those reports discussed in open court.
The bail hearing was temporarily waived pending the outcome of the competency hearing.
“Jensen was deemed not to be a threat” each time she wandered onto MacDill, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said last month, after touring the base to inspect its security system in the wake of Jensen’s intrusions. Still, he said the base has tightened up its security.
“Naturally, we have to be concerned that there was such a breach of the fence line,” said Nelson, appearing at a news conference after his briefing with Air Force Col. Scott DeThomas, the base commander.
Base officials have instituted a “tightening and awareness of all the levels of security they employ,” said Nelson. “They are enhancing the fence line and maritime surveillance.” Base leaders are also “talking to everyone just to be aware and as a result, I don’t think you’ll see any kind of penetration,” said Nelson.
Base commander, Air Force Col. Scott DeThomas said that it is “never acceptable to have four incursions of any kind,” but commended base security for “finding the individual in question all four times.”
And things would have been different, said DeThomas, had Jensen been considered a threat.
“We have to remember that this whole thing would have transpired very differently from day one, when the defenses apprehended her, if she was found to be someone more than someone with an issue that was getting access to the base,” said DeThomas.
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