Lakeville Middle School Principal Sentenced For Theft, Stalking

APPLE VALLEY, MN — A former administrator at Century Middle School in Lakeville was sentenced to 102 months in prison after pleading guilty in April to two counts of stalking (gross misdemeanor), two counts of burglary (felony), and one count of identity theft (felony), in connection with five separate cases from June of 2013 to June of 2018. Christopher J. Endicott, 51, of Apple Valley, was sentenced Monday, the office of Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom announced.

On Nov. 1, 2015, homeowners told Apple Valley police that upon returning to their house after being out of town they found a basement window was broken and pulled open. They also noted that someone had been in the master bedroom. The homeowners found two safes that had been pulled out into the basement hallway. Both were damaged but only one had been opened. At that time, the homeowners were unable to identify if anything was missing.

Two days later, police were contacted by one of the homeowners who said she was missing a white gold ring with a small diamond and a key ring that had their house keys on it.

On Jan. 12, 2018, Endicott was suspended from his job as principal of Century Middle School in connection with the case. On Feb. 21, a Lakeville school resource officer opened a drawer of a file cabinet in Endicott's former school office, which he was using at the time, and discovered three watches, a gold ring, 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 police.

Investigators met with Endicott's neighbor, whose home was burglarized in November of 2015. She identified both the gold ring and the class ring as belonging to her.

Endicott also was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $19,876.35 to the victims. In a statement, Backstrom said there was 18 total victims involved in the case.

“We are pleased to have brought this defendant to justice for this disturbing criminal behavior that terrorized neighbors, family and co-workers," Backstrom said in his statement.

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