A man arrested and charged with stalking UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers pleaded guilty Wednesday to a stalking charge.
Robert Cole Parmalee, a 40-year-old man from Grants Pass, Ore., received a one-year suspended sentence and three years of probation on Wednesday, according to Rockville Superior Court (Conn.) records.
Parmalee is barred from the state of Connecticut during his probation and must follow a protective order that has been in effect since Sept. 16 and will remain in place until Jan. 4, 2026. Parmalee was also given mental health treatment recommendations, according to ESPN.
A request for comment from Parmalee’s public defender was not immediately returned.
Requests from Bueckers’ attorney and a UConn spokesperson were also not immediately returned.
Connecticut State Police first arrested Parmalee on Aug. 27 while he was walking along a highway near Bradley International Airport, located about 30 miles from UConn’s campus and the closest commercial airport to the school. An officer stopped Parmalee, who said he was going to see Bueckers, according to arrest records.
Dispatch informed the officer that an active warrant existed for Parmalee’s arrest on an extraditable arson offense in Oregon. Parmalee was taken into custody at Hartford Correctional Center and held on a $100,000 surety bond. Officers later learned Oregon law enforcement planned to move to dismiss the arson charges, which would have led to a release of Parmalee from Hartford Correctional Center.
But Parmalee was arrested by UConn Police for a second time on Sept. 13 and charged with second-degree breach of peace, electronic stalking and second-degree harassment, according to police records. He was held on a $100,000 bond.
The Connecticut Superior Court issued a protective and no-contact order following Parmalee’s second arrest.
Bueckers informed police in a written statement following Parmalee’s second arrest that she had never spoken to or interacted with him but became “concerned” and “worried” about the safety of herself, her family and her teammates after his Aug. 27 arrest.
According to incident reports reviewed by The Athletic in September, the UConn communications department became aware of Parmalee in June after he sent emails to multiple members of the school’s communications staff. The emails contained “rambling comments,” including he was a member of the royal family, wanted to marry Bueckers and wanted to “have children with every white woman alive,” according to UConn’s reports. When police investigated Parmalee, officers also discovered social media posts referencing other former and current UConn women’s basketball players. The report said: “While the postings can be considered abnormal, they were not found to be threatening in nature.”
The June incident report by the UConn Police noted Parmalee’s prior criminal history from 2002 through 2023, which included harassment, criminal mischief in the first degree and sexual abuse in the third degree, among other offenses.
In July, UConn communications employees turned over more emails from Parmalee to police. The subsequent incident report stated Parmalee also contacted officials at USC, LSU and Bueckers’ agent. The investigating officer spoke with multiple police officers in Oregon, who had “previous run-ins” with Parmalee according to the July incident report, and officers informed UConn Police that Parmalee had a warrant out for his arrest for a failure to appear in court.
Buckers is in her fourth season at UConn and leads the Big East in points per game (20.6) and field goal percentage (.584). The 2024-25 season is expected to be her last with the Huskies, and she’s the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft.
(Photo: David Butler II / Imagn Images)
