WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A 32-year-old New Hampshire man pleaded guilty this week to stalking and attempted voyeurism for peering into a woman’s Wilder bathroom and bedroom on several occasions in 2017.
Robert Black, who used to live near the victim but now lives in Wolfeboro, N.H., appeared in Windsor Superior Court on Tuesday for a change of plea hearing and pleaded guilty to one count of stalking and three counts of attempted voyeurism, all misdemeanors.
He hasn’t been sentenced, but court documents indicate the length of time to serve is contested. The state can argue for Black to serve up to one year of a two- to five-year sentence in jail, while Black can argue for an all-suspended sentence. Regardless of that outcome, Black would remain on probation for five years, the document states.
Black initially faced 13 charges, including a felony count of lewd and lascivious conduct, alleging he masturbated while looking into the woman’s windows. The state dismissed that charge in August 2018.
Prosecutors charged Black in August 2017 after the woman came forward earlier that year and told police she had surveillance footage of a man peering into her windows on Laurel Lane, sometimes drinking alcohol, according to an affidavit in the case.
Police tracked down the suspect — Black — by calling the landscape company printed on his sweatshirt in the footage. A manager at the company, which has branches including ones in Woodstock, Enfield and Meredith, N.H., confirmed Black’s identity.
Police worried there may have been additional victims, as at least two other women in the neighborhood reported to police in 2014 and 2015 that they had heard or saw someone outside their homes, but Deputy Windsor County State’s Attorney Heidi Remick said on Wednesday “we were not able to identify any other victims.”
Black told an investigator that he “has an issue with voyeurism and explained that he went to counseling for it back in 2013,” the affidavit states. When he drinks alcohol, he “loses his judgment,” the document states.
A sentencing date hasn’t yet been set. Black currently remains out on bail.