Alec Cook, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been charged with 15 counts of sexual assault involving five women. When police searched his property, they found handwritten notes describing how he “groomed and stalked” his victims and even had a category titled “kill.”
A Dane County judge set bail at $200,000 for Cook, after he was first charged last Wednesday with raping a student for more than two hours in his apartment on Oct. 12. The woman allegedly pleaded for him to stop, but he continued to assault and choke her. Cook, a business major from Edina, Minn., faces three counts of second-degree and one count of third-degree sexual assault, and one count each of strangulation-suffocation and false imprisonment from that rape.
During police questioning, Cook said he didn’t recall putting his hands around the neck of the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her. When asked how he would not be remember grabbing someone around the neck, Cook replied, “Sometimes I get lost in the heat of the moment,” paused, and then said, “I don’t remember.”
Four more victims came forward against Cook, who has been in jail since last Friday,
USA Today details what the accusations by other victims:
Second woman: Three days after the first woman came forward, a second woman contacted police and reported that she met Cook at a ballroom dance class last spring. She said he reached up her skirt and touched her buttocks and also grabbed her breasts over the top of her clothing on at least 15 occasions.
Third woman: Another woman reported to police that she had met Cook during a human sexuality class in January and dated him for about two months. On their first date, he gave her “many, many compliments.” On their second date, he made her dinner and they had consensual sex. She told police Cook’s kissing was “very forceful” and “over-aggressive,” which she said she attributed to him being an inexperienced kisser.
He later showed up at a party, “apparently uninvited,” and immediately sat down and held her hand, the woman told police. He invited her to his apartment a few days later and they watched a movie. At one point, he brought her a drink of water or juice that she didn’t request, but drank. She said she began feeling “fuzzy,” remembered feeling very sleepy, and that she was sexually assaulted.
Fourth woman: The fourth woman said they first met at a birthday party for a friend, even though he told her he didn’t personally know anyone there. She was standing in the kitchen with her friends when Cook walked in and “immediately demanded attention.” Within 10 minutes of starting a conversation with her, he placed his hand on the back of her head and kept trying to kiss her.
While she turned away from him, she agreed to give him her phone number and he persistently called her to have coffee with him. She met him at a coffee shop on State St., and he again tried to kiss her and hold her hand. One to two weeks after their first meeting, she agreed to go to his apartment. She described forceful kissing and touching that she believed she stopped by faking an orgasm.
Fifth woman: The fifth woman reported that she met Cook at an experiment for a class last spring. In a chat on Facebook, he asked her to his apartment. They hadn’t even said “hi” when he began to kiss her roughly. During consensual sexual activity, he began pressing on the front of her throat with his hand, and repeatedly kissed and choked her, on at least one occasion choking her with both hands.
She told police he forced her to have oral sex and had a fistful of her hair in his hand. He also slapped her repeatedly, asking if she liked it. She said she told him “no,” but he continued striking her and was “going insane” striking her on the back and legs.
The senior student apparently preyed on the students over the last 18 months, the earliest assault allegedly took place on March 20, 2015.
Cook’s attorneys said they believe all sexual activity that occurred was consensual and that the ballroom dancing allegations are false.
A search warrant filed with the Dane County Circuit Court states that dozens of women have come to the police wanting to speak about “unknown acts related to Cook.” It’s unclear if or how many of those women have said they were victims of sexual assault.
During the police investigation they discovered a black leather notebook full of handwritten notes of Cook’s victims and what he wanted to do to them. Cook kept an “index page” of women’s names at the front of a notebook and next to the names were descriptions of the women, and what he wanted to do to them. The notes detailed the 20-year-old’s “stalking and grooming” techniques.
“And at the top of the page, there is a box marked, ‘Kill,’” prosecutor Colette Sampson said during a Monday court appearance.
https://twitter.com/a_vagoon/status/791728186568704000
See inside Alec Cook's black leather notebook. His lawyer addresses context of word "kill" in the booklet found in Cook's apartment. pic.twitter.com/xKjrV6kls7
— Lindsey Branwall (@lindseybranwall) October 27, 2016
The list has the names of women, date of last contact, where they met, how they met, color of eyes, job/major, interesting factual commonalities, what makes her special, present goal, what was my last step in this relationship, what’s my next step, has it come to an end, and level of importance on a scale of 1 to 10.
In a profile published in his high school newspaper two years ago, Cook talked about his main influences.
“[T]he Christian God, number one. And then probably Satan as number two because without Satan, God would have nothing to do.”
He added that his musical inspirations are Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, and the comedy band Flight of the Conchords. After thinking about it for a bit, however, the newspaper says Cook modified his answer: “[A]ctually, no, put Jimi first because Jimi and God are interchangeable.”
[NBCNews]