A 40-year-old man has been charged with stalking and harassing UConn basketball player Paige Bueckers.
Robert Cole Parmalee of Grants Pass, Oregon, was arrested Friday by UConn police. He appeared in court Monday and is being held on $100,000 bail.
Connecticut State Police previously arrested Parmalee on August 27 after he was seen walking on a highway near Hartford, telling police he was on his way to see Bueckers.
Parmalee came onto UConn’s radar in June after sending a series of strange emails to the school’s communications department. Parmalee claimed to be part of the royal family and reportedly wrote that he wanted to marry someone involved with the Huskies’ women’s basketball team. Parmalee also referenced Bueckers in multiple social media posts. One message contained a fake wedding invitation, while others showed Parmalee wearing what may have been an engagement ring. He posted before his arrest in August that he planned to propose to Bueckers and have her expelled from UConn.
A school police officer saw even more alarming posts from Parmalee, including a post from his TikTok account.
“And if I can’t live with a woman of my choice, [Bueckers]then I will choose to die, and I will choose to take all of you who oppose me, who oppose us, to hell with me, and return, king…”, the post read.
An affidavit showed that Parmalee had been messaging Bueckers on Instagram since February. Bueckers did not respond to Parmalee, the document said. She told UConn police on Friday that she feared for her safety and the safety of her family and teammates, the affidavit said.
Neither Bueckers’ attorneys nor the UConn women’s basketball team have commented on the matter.
A Connecticut district court judge said Monday that Parmalee will be under “intensive pretrial supervision,” including GPS tracking.
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Bueckers was the Big East Player of the Year and a first-team All-American last season as a redshirt junior. The guard averaged a career-high 21.9 points per game and helped the Huskies reach the Final Four.