By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The former human resources manager at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound was sentenced to prison today in a cyberstalking case prosecutors called extraordinarily disturbing and cruel.
Daniel Christopher Leonard, 32, was given a sentence of a little less than three and a half years, plus three years of of supervised release in the case authorities said included victims who worked with him at Great Wolf, at his previous job at a Miami hotel and even at the Olympia apartment complex where he lived.
Leonard has been in custody at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac since he was charged in May, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. He was arrested on April 27.
The U.S. Attorneys Office said Leonard admitted to making more than 4,000 harassing and sexually threatening calls to more than 1,200 phone numbers across the U.S and Canada.
Some of the victims did not recognize the caller because he disguised his voice and phone number through an Internet “spoofing” service, according to a news release. He reportedly made graphic threats of assault and rape.
In U.S. District Court in Tacoma today, Judge Ronald B. Leighton said the calls were terribly disturbing, painful and haunting for the victims, who unlike Leonard, “could not turn the lights off at night”, according to the news release.
He pleaded guilty in September to one count of cyberstalking and four counts of making threatening communications.
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Read “News brief: Former Great Wolf manager pleads guilty to making obscene and threatening phone calls” from Tuesday Sept. 14, 2010 here