CBS News
Man accused of stalking college basketball star Paige Bueckers found with an engagement ring near airport
A man accused of stalking and harassing UConn basketball star Paige Bueckers said on social media that he intended to marry her and had an engagement ring and lingerie in his possession when he was arrested near a Connecticut airport, according to police reports.
Robert Cole Parmalee, 40, posted statements on TikTok and sent emails to University of Connecticut officials that showed an infatuation with Bueckers and included threats, police said.
Parmalee, whose last known addresses were in Grants Pass, Oregon, and Ritzville, Washington, was ordered detained on $100,000 bail Monday after being arraigned on the charges in the courthouse in Rockville, Connecticut. He was also ordered to stay away from a person named in court as “P.B.” and banned from the UConn campus in Storrs.
His public defender did not immediately return an email seeking comment Tuesday.
Parmalee was initially arrested on Aug. 27 while walking along a highway near Bradley International Airport near Hartford. He told a state trooper that he had just flown in from the Pacific Northwest and was on his way to see Bueckers at UConn, the police reports said, adding he was found with a ring and lingerie.
The trooper took Parmalee into custody when he learned there was an arrest warrant out of Josephine County, Oregon, accusing Parmalee of setting a home on fire with roommates and pets inside, police said.
Parmalee had posted photos, videos and comments about Bueckers on TikTok and other social media platforms and had been emailing UConn officials since June with rambling comments including his desire to marry Bueckers, police said. The postings and emails initially did not warrant criminal charges, but his comments became alarming over time, the reports said.
An arrest warrant affidavit redacts the name of the UConn student at whom Parmalee’s posts were directed and names her only as “V1,” but says Parmalee posted on social media about his desire to marry V1.
“Parmalee has shown a continual, escalating behavior and directed effort to make electronic postings about V1 and threats against those close with V1 which has caused emotional distress over the past two weeks for V1,” a UConn police officer wrote in the affidavit dated Friday.
V1 told police that she discovered that Parmalee had been sending various videos to her Instagram direct messages since February, but they were not threatening. She said she did not respond to the messages. She said she became concerned for the safety of herself, her family and her teammates after learning of Parmalee’s arrest near the airport.
In a TikTok posting reviewed by The Associated Press, Parmalee referred to a photo of Bueckers and an unnamed man, writing, “This is worth it for this guy, huh? … this is just one guy, I’ll sacrifice him, no problems, no questions asked.” The police reports mention that post and refer to V1.
In another post, he talked about bringing V1 flowers and finding her mother’s home, police said. He also wrote in a different post that if he cannot live with the woman of his choosing — referring to V1 — then, “I will choose to die, and I will choose to take all of you that pose me, oppose us, to hell.” He also tells V1 that “if you allow them to touch you, you allow them to die,” according to the police reports.
In a TikTok post before he arrived in Connecticut, Parmalee wrote, “I’m coming to UCONN Paige Madison Bueckers, I’ll be in Hartford tomorrow morning,” and included a photo of himself with airline tickets at an airport.
Parmalee was initially detained on the arson warrant out of Oregon before being charged with felony stalking and misdemeanor harassment and breach of peace by UConn police.
The police reports say Parmalee has a criminal history dating back to 2002 that includes arrests for misdemeanor sexual abuse, harassment, burglary, driving under the influence and possession of methamphetamine. Police officials in Oregon told Connecticut authorities they had no information related to mental health calls associated with Parmalee.
Bueckers, from Hopkins, Minnesota, was named the national player of the year as a freshman. She spent roughly two years recovering from knee injuries before returning to the court last season, taking her team to the Final Four where they lost to Iowa, which was led by Caitlin Clark.
The 22-year-old announced that she will return for a fifth year at Connecticut.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
