Lakeville principal, charged with stalking, also faces burglary charge

More criminal accusations have been leveled against a Lakeville school principal who has been on leave since January.

Chris Endicott — charged earlier this month with stalking a police detective who was investigating him over allegations of computer hacking — now faces a felony burglary charge stemming from a burglary at his next-door neighbor's Apple Valley home three years ago.

He was charged Monday with second-degree burglary, the Dakota County Attorney's Office announced.

Endicott, 50, is in the custody of the Dakota County Sheriff's Office and will receive a medical evaluation at Regions Hospital in St. Paul to determine if he is a danger to himself or others, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said.

"He is not going to be released until that determination has been made," Backstrom said.

Endicott's attorney, Bruce Rivers, called the charges "ridiculous."

"They have no evidence that he did it," Rivers said. "It stems from a broken window in a basement [and] if you see how big my client is he wouldn't even fit in that window."

On Nov. 1, 2015, Apple Valley Police officers were called to a home on a report of a burglary. Homeowners told police that after returning from out of town, they found their basement window broken and pulled open, according to court documents.

The homeowners also reported that someone had been in their master bedroom and opened one of the two safes that were moved into the basement hallway. Two days later, the homeowners informed police that a white gold ring with a small diamond and a key ring that held their house keys also were missing.

Last week, a Lakeville school resource officer opened a file cabinet Endicott used while working at the school, and found a gold ring, three watches, an antique fork and knife, a Coon Rapids High School class ring, a key on a Mercedes-Benz key ring and a thumb drive, according to the criminal complaint.

The homeowners told the investigators that the rings belonged to them.

Lakeville school officials suspended Endicott from his job at Century Middle School in Lakeville on Jan. 12, when police began looking into the unauthorized access of a cellphone and computer equipment belonging to a woman who worked at Scott Highlands Middle School in Apple Valley.

As the investigation continued, Endicott went missing last week and Apple Valley police asked outstate authorities to help locate him. His car was found, and tracks in the snow led to a fish house on East Battle Lake in Otter Tail County. He was arrested.

Endicott's next court appearance is scheduled for March 8.