High tech stalking, the new rage

Man gets 8-month jail term for stalking his wife
By Anne Kim

Seattle Times staff reporter

A 46 year-old Kirkland man accused of stalking his estranged wife by accessing her e-mail account and hiding a cellphone with a GPS-tracking feature inside her car has been sentenced after pleading guilty to a felony stalking charge.

Robert Morris Peak was sentenced Monday to eight months in King County Jail and four months on work release, according to sentencing papers. His guilty plea was filed in King County Superior Court on July 3.

The stalking began, according to charging papers, after he and his wife, Sherri Peak, separated in July 2005 and she started divorce proceedings. They had been married for more than 10 years and have two daughters.

According to charging papers, between August and December 2005, Sherri Peak saw Robert Peak follow her several times.

She said she saw him loitering in the parking lot of her office building, following her when she was with family and friends in downtown Seattle and following her by car while she was running errands.

Sherri Peak told police that her estranged husband was upset about the separation.

Between August and November 2005, he repeatedly called one of her female employees, trying to find out where she was. In October he showed up at a male co-worker's home and asked to use the phone because he said he was lost. He also asked whether the man dated any female co-workers, according to the charging papers.

Sherri Peak, 36, filed for a protection order in King County Superior Court in October.

When a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigator and a member of the Eastside Narcotics Task Force searched Sherri Peak's car on Feb. 9, 2006, to look for a tracking device, they removed the dashboard panel and found a cellphone — designed to turn on when the ignition was switched on — and charger wired into the car's electrical system. The cellphone could report the location of the car to an Internet site and could also automatically accept incoming calls, allowing the caller to hear what was happening inside the car.

Robert Peak was arrested the same day and a search warrant of his house revealed keys to new locks his wife had purchased for her house and e-mail printouts investigators think were obtained using a spyware type of program.




Robert Peak was given credit for 152 days of his sentence, according to sentencing papers.

He also was ordered to have no contact with Sherri Peak for five years.