by Guy Page

A former Vermont lawmaker arrested last month for stalking a woman was also the first person convicted under Vermont’s Peeping Tom law in 2006.

According to an April, 2006 Seven Days news report authored by the unforgettable Inside Track columnist Peter Freyne, Alan Bjerke, a Burlington lawyer and former lawmaker, was found guilty that month of using a cellphone to capture images of a woman at a Burlington tanning salon. 

Bjerke reportedly pled no contest and received an 18 month suspended sentence.

Last week, Vermont State Police arrested Bjerke, 61, of Burlington for stalking a 62-year-old Waitsfield woman. 

Bjerke, a lawyer since 1994 and a Vermont lawmaker from 1992-1998, was seeking to possess the vehicle as part of a debt payment, state police said. 

Bjerke served three terms in the Vermont Legislature from 1992-1998. He also taught contract law at Burlington College. He is also a self-expressed expert witness on debt collection legislation.  In testimony submitted in 2018 for a debt collection bill, Bjerke said: “I am an attorney admitted in Vermont since 1994. For the last 20 years, I have focused my practice in the areas of commercial and consumer debt collection, where I have represented both creditors and debtors.”

Bjerke has been a member of the Burlington Democratic Committee, the Ward 3 Neighborhood Planning Assembly, Greater Archibald-Intervale Neighborhood Association.

On March 17, police received a report from Michelle Woodcock that she had found an Apple AirTag stuck behind the license plate of her car. Investigation indicated that Alan Bjerke had placed the AirTag on Woodcock’s vehicle so he could track its location. Bjerke was lawfully seeking to take possession of the vehicle as part of a debt payment; however, he did not have a search warrant or authorization to track the vehicle’s and/or Woodcock’s location. 

On April 26, Bjerke was issued a citation for the violation of Stalking.