Man facing charges for stalking college basketball star Paige Bueckers

A 40-year-old man is facing charges for allegedly stalking and harassing UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers.

Robert Cole Parmalee of Grants Pass, Oregon, was arrested by UConn police on Friday. He appeared in court on Monday and is being held on $100,000 bond.

Connecticut State Police previously arrested Parmalee on 27 August after he was seen walking on a highway near Hartford. He told police he was on his way to see Bueckers.

Parmalee surfaced on UConn’s radar in June after sending the school’s communications department a series of odd emails. Claiming to be part of the royal family, Parmalee allegedly wrote he wanted to marry someone involved with the Huskies’ women’s basketball team. Parmalee also referenced Bueckers in multiple social media posts. One post contained a fake wedding invitation, while others showed Parmalee with what was possibly an engagement ring. He posted before his August arrest that he intended to propose to Bueckers and have her kicked out of UConn.

A school police officer noted other alarming posts from Parmalee, including one from his TikTok account.

“And if I cannot live with a woman of my choosing, [Bueckers], then I will choose to die, and I will choose to take all of you that (op)pose me, oppose us, to hell, and return, king…,” the post read.

An affidavit indicated that Parmalee had been messaging Bueckers on Instagram since February. Bueckers did not reply to Parmalee, according to the document. She told UConn police on Friday that she feared for her safety and that of her family and teammates, the affidavit noted.

Neither Bueckers’ lawyers nor the UConn women’s basketball team have commented on the matter.

A Connecticut superior court judge said Monday that Parmalee will be under “intense pretrial supervision,” including GPS tracking.

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.

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