photo by: Shutterstock

Robert J. Gross had been scheduled to go on trial last month, on federal charges that he stalked area massage workers and illegally obtained guns.

Instead, he got additional stalking charges added and his trial is being delayed, in part to allow him to undergo a mental examination before proceeding.

Gross, 67, of Kansas City, Mo., remains in federal custody with no bond, and his attorneys are now requesting that his trial be pushed back until January.

Meanwhile, the local aggravated sexual battery case — charging Gross with sexually assaulting a worker at a Lawrence massage parlor — that preceded the federal case is on hold, with no next hearing currently scheduled in Douglas County District Court.

On top of stalking the women and recently purchasing multiple guns and pairs of handcuffs, Gross has a decades-long history of concerning behavior, an FBI special agent who investigated him wrote in a complaint accompanying the indictment in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo.

“Gross has a history of interest in prostitutes, including deviant sexual and violent behavior, particularly against women, dating back to at least 1975,” the agent wrote.

In ordering Gross detained without bond earlier this year, the federal judge wrote that no bond conditions could reasonably assure the safety of the community.

photo by: Johnson County Sheriff’s Office

In this mugshot provided by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Robert J. Gross is pictured following a 1987 arrest by the Merriam Police Department.

In the federal indictment released in January, a grand jury charged Gross with two counts of interstate stalking of massage workers; three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm; and three counts of receiving firearms while under indictment.

A superseding indictment filed in August added two more counts of interstate stalking.

According to the new indictment, Gross allegedly victimized four women between October and December 2017, traveling between Kansas and Missouri with the intent to harass and intimidate them and causing them substantial emotional distress.

One victim named in the federal indictment is a woman who worked at Lawrence’s Tea Spa Massage, 2223 Louisiana St., and was interviewed by police about the sexual assault there, according to Douglas County court documents.

Another federal victim’s name matches the initials of the Tea Spa Massage worker whom Gross allegedly accosted and repeatedly fondled — while he was completely naked at the business’s front desk — according to Douglas County court documents.

The sexual assault at Tea Spa Massage happened on Oct. 1, 2017.

The first woman told authorities that an older white man who went by “Bob” had been coming into the business, as well as two Olathe massage businesses where she worked, since January 2017.

“Bob initially visited the businesses to request massages,” the FBI investigator wrote. “However, recently, Bob began asking for sexual services.”

The woman said Bob had been to all three of her businesses on Oct. 1, and was asked to leave at each.

The same day, the woman saw Bob in her neighborhood in Lenexa and speculated he might have followed her when she left work. She said he also may have followed other employees whose cars were damaged in Olathe, including one who turned him away when he asked for sexual services at Tea Spa Massage in Lawrence.

The woman gave police surveillance video from Tea Spa that showed the assault of the other worker, and Gross was charged later in October 2017 with one count of aggravated sexual battery, a felony.

Gross was arrested on the charge and released from the Douglas County Jail on $5,000 bond.

Evidence that Gross had been “destroying property and stalking individuals associated with massage parlors in Kansas” led federal authorities to conduct “further surveillance” of his movements, the FBI investigator wrote.

In the ensuing two months, agents trailing Gross saw him visit a Kansas City, Kan., surplus store where he bought four sets of handcuffs, two ski masks and two black shirts with “SECURITY” and badges on them. Management told law enforcement Gross had been there two weeks earlier and bought two sets of handcuffs then.

Agents also saw him handle and purchase guns.

The firearm charges in the federal complaint involved two guns Gross allegedly handled at a gun show and two others he was allegedly caught buying from a man in a Liberty, Mo., parking lot in late 2017.

In a handwritten letter to the federal judge, filed this summer, Gross said he was being held in Leavenworth and that he needed to be allowed more time in the facility’s law library.

“They do afford me several hrs. per week,” he wrote. “But, I need a lot more time to prepare my own motions for the judge to review.”

The judge denied that request because Gross has an attorney, and the motion didn’t come from him.

Defense attorney John P. O’Connor did request one trial delay because of a conflict in his schedule and an earlier delay to make time for Gross to get a mental evaluation.

“Defendant’s counsel has worked diligently preparing for trial,” O’Connor wrote, prior to the earlier trial date. “Defense counsel now believes that it is imperative that a mental exam needs to be scheduled.”

That exam had been scheduled to take place in late August, according to a later motion.

Gross has pleaded not guilty to all charges, in federal and Douglas County court.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office previously denied the Journal-World’s request for Gross’ recent mugshot.