Additional sexual assault charges expected against UW student with ‘stalking’ list

Court documents say other women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault against a University of Wisconsin student already charged with assaulting and choking a female acquaintance.

The Dane County District Attorney’s office is working on completing a criminal complaint against 20-year-old Alec Cook, of Edina, Minnesota involving another three women while the Madison university has suspended Cook.

Cook is facing nine criminal charges, including strangulation and false imprisonment, after the acquaintance said he assaulted her and choked her at his apartment Oct. 12. Additional charges against Cook could be filed Thursday.

Cook has denied the charges filed against him. His attorney, Christopher Van Wagner, says prosecutors will have a hard time proving some of the allegations.

A Dane County prosecutor, Collette Sampson, said the man would be charged with 30 counts, including felony sexual assault, false imprisonment and strangulation in connection with alleged sexual assaults on four women.

Now, said Sampson, police believe Cook has been sexually assaulting women since March 2015, growing progressively more aggressive.

She said that when they searched his apartment, they found a notebook documenting what she called “grooming and stalking techniques.”

Associated Press