A Jefferson County man who was charged with a felony weapons offense in June is now facing a felony stalking charge and two additional misdemeanor violations of a no contact order after allegedly continuing to contact a protected party on multiple occasions through social media, text messages, phone calls, and in-person contact at football games.
David Rippey, 55, of Libertyville was originally charged in June 2026 with Intimidation with a Dangerous Weapon, a Class D Felony, with both a civil temporary protective order and a criminal no contact order issued on June 23rd. That case has a pretrial conference scheduled for November 24th. Since that charge and the no contact orders, Rippey has been charged with two counts of Violation of a No Contact Order, both Simple Misdemeanors, and most recently Stalking — Violation of a Protective Order, a Class C Felony.
According to court documents, the first no contact order violation occurred after Rippey was observed near the victim’s residence, sent messages through a third party to be forwarded to the victim, liked posts and sent friend requests on social media, sent flowers to the victim, and admitted to his son that he had noticed the victim’s house was dark and remotely turned on the lights using an app on his phone, among other things. He was arrested on that charge on August 5th.
Court documents state that just four days after that arrest, on August 9th, Rippey allegedly began contacting the protected party again. Between August 9th and September 19th, Rippey again liked posts and commented on the protected party’s social media, sent follow requests on other social media platforms, and sent the protected party several text messages — including one asking her to come to his house for dinner. Rippey had moved back to Libertyville by that time, living approximately a half mile from the protected party. He also attempted to call her on multiple occasions.
The stalking charge stems in part from two incidents at Kinnick Stadium during Iowa Hawkeye football games. On September 12th, the victim reported seeing Rippey following her around the stadium before he made contact with her and engaged her in conversation. When the victim left the stadium, Rippey followed her out. On September 19th, the victim again observed Rippey at an Iowa football game on multiple occasions. Rippey again attempted to speak with her, followed her out of the stadium when she left, and allegedly smacked his hands on her vehicle while she was locked inside and continued trying to speak to her. When the victim left the parking lot, Rippey sent a text message saying he was sorry and asking her not to put him in jail.
Court documents also state that Rippey admitted to the victim that he had been accessing her Ring camera and Sleep Number bed app to monitor whether she was okay, and admitted that he had sent friend requests and liked her social media posts in order to get her attention.
Rippey has posted a $10,000 surety bond on the felony stalking charge and a $300 surety bond on the most recent misdemeanor charge. He has entered pleas of not guilty and waived his preliminary hearings on both. A no contact order has been requested in both cases.
