A UB employee arraigned on charges of public lewdness and third-degree stalking will appear in Amherst Town Court on Tuesday.
Keith Bromstead, 32, a custodial worker for Residence Halls and Apartments, was arrested near the Ellicott Complex dorms by both UB and Amherst police in the early morning hours of Oct. 6 for an incident involving a 29-year-old woman.
Bromstead is currently suspended from UB because of the arrest, which was made by Frontier Road near Ellicott and the Creekside Village apartments. Amherst police received the report at 6:30 a.m.
"It's up to the courts now," said John Woods, assistant chief of police for UB Public Safety. "Because the investigation is continuing, we're unable to give more information."
The public lewdeness charge, which was issued by campus police, differs from the third-degree stalking, charged by Amherst police. According to a source familiar with the situation, the lewdness charge is for public masturbation, and there had been prior student complaints concerning Bromstead, but those were never documented.
Campus police declined to comment whether the woman is affiliated with UB.
"The stalking occurred off-campus," said John Grela, director of Public Safety.
Joseph Krakowiak, director of RH&A, said he couldn't comment on employees.
"It's the policy of the university," said. "I can say that he doesn't have keys and he doesn't have access to the buildings."
Co-workers who know Bromstead were reluctant to talk about the incident and asked not to be identified.
"He worked over at Spaulding," said a custodial staff member hauling a bag of laundry. "I can't comment on it."
"It's a sticky situation. We can't comment on it," said another staff member.
Students who live in Spaulding Quad said they received an email from RH&A informing them of the incident.
Many residents said they were nonchalant about the situation.
"I know that there was a problem and that he was arrested," said Nathan Canfield, a freshman pharmacy major. "A few people did claim they saw him again, but I noticed there's a new janitor now, so they must have switched the staff around."
Christa Pack, a freshman business major, said she wasn't at all concerned about being stalked or followed.
"I can't find my way around here. How could anyone else?" Pack said. "I feel pretty safe. I never have any problem."
New York's stalking laws are among the newest in the country, adopted in 1999.
Third-degree stalking is a class A misdemeanor and suggests either a previous conviction of stalking in the fourth degree or that an individual engaged in conduct directed at a person with intent to harass, annoy or alarm and reasonably cause fear of physical injury, or the commission of a sex offense against a person.
One out of every 12 women will be stalked in her lifetime, with an estimated million women stalked annually in United States, according to the New York Attorney General's Web site.
