A Woodbury woman broke up with a boyfriend she met online a year earlier after learning he’d been arrested for felony-level stalking of his ex.
Then she became his next target, according to charges filed in Washington County District Court this week.
David Earle Roberts, 54, was charged Tuesday with one count of felony level stalking after police put a tracker on his vehicle and watched him travel to the woman’s Woodbury home earlier this month despite the order for protection she had in place against him and the state’s order to Stay at Home except for essential business and travel, charges say.
A surveillance system set up at the woman’s home by law enforcement also captured someone matching Roberts’ appearance exit a vehicle at her house and vandalize another vehicle parked at the address, the complaint said.
The second time police observed him near her address, they pulled him over. Roberts was found wearing dark clothing, including a dark stocking cap and gloves, charges say. He had a long candle lighter in his pocket and two screwdrivers and a dark-colored ski mask were found in his glove compartment, charges say.
The incident followed more than two years of “terrorizing” behavior toward the woman, the complaint said.
It started with unwanted phone calls and texts after she broke up with him in November of 2017, charges say. When the woman blocked his number, Roberts reportedly got a new number and started texting her from that.
A couple months later, she saw him sitting in a vehicle outside her then Mahtomedi residence, but he quickly sped off when she came out of her garage, according to the complaint. A 10-page letter from him quickly followed. Then things took a peculiar turn.
The woman and her loved ones started receiving odd, anonymous messages. There was the time the woman returned from a race in Arizona and found a print-out of her race results on her front door, followed by social media images of her sent to her parents.
The woman received a Mardis Gras mask and beads in the mail shortly before she and her fiance were planning to leave on a trip for New Orleans.
One time, when her fiance showed up at a business trip in Iowa, the conference organizer said they’d been contacted by an anonymous caller who said the man has a history of abusing women, charges say.
The woman eventually got an order for protection against Roberts through a Washington County judge in September of 2019, but the troubling behavior continued, the complaint said.
Police say the case is particularly troubling because it shows a pattern of behavior. Roberts was convicted of felony level stalking in Hennepin County in 2018 due to his actions toward a previous girlfriend after he broke up with her.
That woman also eventually secured a restraining order against Roberts, but his behavior continued undeterred. He was once found outside her residence dressed all in black and carrying binoculars, authorities say. He was suspected of vandalizing her vehicle, killing her plants and grass and sending letters and pictures of her to her family.
At the time of the harassment, the woman’s dog suddenly became ill and died after she took him to an emergency veterinary clinic. The vet pathologist determined the dog had been poisoned with anti-freeze, the complaint said.
While law enforcement were watching Roberts in the more recent case, they spotted him driving past his old ex’s residence as well, charges say.
Roberts made his first court appearance on the current charges Tuesday. His bail was set at $400,000 without conditions and $200,000 on the condition he have no contact with the woman, stay out of Woodbury and be required to wear a GPS device to monitor his movements according to Woodbury police commander, John Altman.
In addition to felony-level stalking, Roberts was charged with felony-level violation of a harassment restraining order as well as violating the state’s Stay at Home order.
No attorney was listed for him in court records.
“Our hope is that the arrest of Mr. Roberts gives victims some peace of mind,” Altman said this week. “Roberts behavior is very concerning, considering that he has been tried and convicted for stalking a different person, and yet continues to do so. The measures in which Roberts had taken to stalk and harass victims became increasingly complex and alarming.”
He added that detectives are continuing to examine evidence for other potential victims.