The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania charged a Penn State College of Engineering professor with stalking and harassment on Oct. 30 for stalking a woman for 14 years.
Matthew Parkinson, director of The Learning Factory and professor, faces one misdemeanor count of stalking, two misdemeanor counts of harassment and one summary count of harassment for regularly contacting a State College woman after she had previously told him to stop, according to the criminal docket.
In 2015, the beginning of the affidavit’s timeline, Parkinson showed up to the woman’s place of employment between every two weeks to two months. The visits were “persistent, unwanted and unannounced,” according to the affidavit.
The woman reported Parkison “would hide out of sight while she was parking her vehicle in the mornings and then surprise her by suddenly appearing and banging on her vehicle window to scare her.”
These encounters continued for seven years between 2015 and 2022.
In 2022, the woman reported the contact “increased dramatically” — with up to 40 visits between April 2022 to mid-September 2022 and as many as four stops within three of her shifts, according to the affidavit.
The woman reported to police that she told Parkinson to stop, but he continued to stop by her work and email her “suggesting lunch walks or simply checking in on days he didn’t get to see (her.)”
During April 2022, Parkinson invited the woman and her husband on a couple’s trip to Machu Picchu after she told Parkinson to stop asking her to go on trips, according to an email excerpt in the affidavit.
The woman asked her husband to tell Parkinson that she was not OK with him stopping by her place of employment regularly. Parkinson then sent her an email saying that she would not hear from him until she was ready to talk to him, according to the affidavit.
The woman reported Parkinson then began sending her husband text messages that included things such as “I haven’t really experienced a break-up before, now I know what all the songs are about,” and his “worldview is shattered.”
The woman quit her job in 2023 to “get away from (Parkinson) for good.”
In December 2023, Parkinson texted one of the woman’s sons, stopped by his workplace and asked for family updates, according to the affidavit. Parkinson reported her husband had previously told Parkinson to not contact their children.
In June, the woman reported that Parkison approached the woman’s daughter at a youth girl’s camp and “began attempting conversation with her.” Later that evening, Parkinson began mimicking a phrase her daughter used, but he “did not mimic any of the other teenage girls,” according to the affidavit.
Police initially issued Parkison a non-traffic citation on Sept. 6, which was withdrawn before police filed the criminal complaint for Parkinson’s current charges.
“The University is aware of the charges against Matthew Parkinson, and he is on administrative leave,” the university said in a statement.
More information will be available after Parkinson’s preliminary hearing 8:30 a.m. Dec. 11 in front of magisterial district judge Steven Lachman.
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