The female star of TV’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” has found herself in the middle of a real-life crime drama, The Post has learned.
Kathryn Erbe — the honey-blonde actress who plays an NYPD Major Case detective hell-bent on getting into the minds of criminals — has been the victim of an obsessed fan who followed her and poured out his unbridled love for her in letters and e-mails, law-enforcement sources said.
Starstruck fan Charles Nagel, a self-described entertainer and songwriter from Philadelphia who goes by the stage name Chaz Rose, has sent love letters for the past three years to Erbe’s Brooklyn home and frequently turned up on the set of the popular cop show both in the Big Apple and California, the sources said.
Nagel, 36, was consumed with Erbe, 44, and the show, which he chatted about incessantly on a personal MySpace blog that he devoted solely to the pretty star and “Criminal Intent,” the sources added.
“He sent her letters of adulation for years about how much he loved her . . . he was totally obsessed,” a source explained. “It was a case of unrequited love.”
Erbe, a divorced mother of two, handled Nagel’s obsession as skillfully as possible for years, ensuring that NBC, show producers and private security monitored Nagel and his letters once they raised red flags and went beyond the bounds of normal fan adulation.
But within recent weeks, their fear factor took a dramatic turn when Nagel suddenly began sending letters filled with his passionate prose and hopes of a permanent hookup to the homes of several of her relatives.
“That really got her unnerved,” a source said.
Erbe went to her local station house to speak with real NYPD detectives, who contacted the Brooklyn district attorney’s rackets bureau and the NYPD’s Computer Crime squad.
The cyberprobers quickly amassed lengthy e-mail and Internet trails involving Nagel.
Nagel was arrested on stalking charges Tuesday in Philadelphia on a warrant obtained by the NYPD. He was being held pending an extradition hearing.
Nagel boasts on the Web that he is “a Singer/Songwriter who plays Piano/Guitar & Percussion.”
“My romantic smooth sounds” were influenced by favorite singers Michael Jackson and Johnny Mathis, he said. “I believe melody feeds the soul.”
Since 2001, Erbe has starred as Detective Alex Eames on the NBC-USA Network series alongside actor Vincent D’Onofrio. She is slated to leave the show later this spring.
She could not be reached for comment.