The principal of Cambridge Primary School is in jail after a woman he used to date called police Sunday to report that he wouldn't leave her home.
Christopher Grote, 47, has been charged with stalking, disorderly conduct and fleeing a peace officer.
A complaint filed by the Isanti County Attorney's Office on Monday alleged that a deputy sheriff arrived to investigate at the woman's back-yard deck when he heard someone crashing through the woods. The deputy, Chad Meyer, yelled, "Stop, Sheriff's Office," before chasing Grote through the trees.
Meyer continued calling out to Grote, according to the complaint, and finally found him lying on his stomach 40 yards away, with his hands underneath his body and scratches on his face. When Grote allegedly didn't comply with an order to put his hands behind his back, Meyer tasered him, then escorted him back to the squad car.
The woman told authorities that she ran into Grote at a firefighters' benefit earlier in the evening when Grote approached her. She said he was intoxicated and insisted that he would be driving to her house, despite her refusals to let him in, the complaint said.
The woman said after she and Grote had left the benefit separately, he repeatedly called her, saying, "I'm here, please come talk to me!" according to the complaint. The same woman called for help in July to have Grote removed from her property; she was home alone with her children, authorities said.
"We just want to ensure everyone that our priority and our focus is on our students at this time," said Shawna Carpentier, communications coordinator for the Cambridge-Isanti school system. "While we continue to work through this situation, there's still a lot of information we do not know."
She said Cambridge Intermediate School's principal, Scott Peterson, would oversee the primary school for the time being.
