Somersworth man gets 33 months for stalking ex-girlfriend

PORTLAND, Maine - A Somersworth, N.H., man was sentenced Thursday in federal court for stalking and traveling interstate to violate a protection order, the U.S. Attorneys Office has announced.

Lawrence Keenan IV, 31, will spend 33 months in federal prison and three years in supervised release. He pleaded guilty in February.

According to court documents, beginning on June 3, 2020, Keenan began sending a recently former girlfriend and her family harassing text messages in an effort to reconcile. When the victim, who resided in South Berwick at the time, refused to respond, Keenan also sent threatening messages to the victim and her former husband, which caused them both emotional distress. The victim then obtained a temporary protection order from the Maine District Court in York on June 4, 2020. The order, among other restrictions, prohibited Keenan from contacting the victim or entering the premises of her residence, which Keenan later did 10 days later, resulting in his arrest.

The temporary order was made final by the Maine District Court on June 17, 2020. Keenan was released on bail on June 24, 2020, with a new condition that he not return to South Berwick.

Between June 28-29, 2020, Keenan left approximately 23 harassing and threatening voicemails for the victim in violation of the final protection order and state bail conditions. In the last message, Keenan warned the victim that he was on his way to her South Berwick residence. Keenan drove from New Hampshire to Maine with the intent to violate the protective order. In the early morning of June 29, 2020, the South Berwick police responded to a 911 call and located Keenan inside the porch of the victim's residence. She was not home at the time.

The South Berwick and Somersworth police departments, the York County District Attorney's Office; and the FBI investigated the case.