A convicted sex offender from Albany is scheduled to appear in a Benton County courtroom today in connection with seven Corvallis burglaries in which police say an intruder targeted college-age women. One woman reported awakening to find that she was being molested.

Bruce Allen Sitton, 52, was arrested Dec. 14 on suspicion of multiple burglaries. He is scheduled to make a brief appearance in Benton County Circuit Court at 1:20 p.m. with his newly appointed attorney, Clark Willes.

Sitton originally was arrested for seven burglaries that occurred between Aug. 25 and Oct. 23, 2007. Victims reported that an intruder entered through an unlocked door or window. Police said the burglar often took personal items such as mementos and sometimes touched the victims in a sexual manner.

"He has a history of going to college towns with young women, stalking them and entering their homes," said Corvallis police detective Tim Brewer. "He would watch and touch (the victims). If they woke up, he would run out."

Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson so far has charged Sitton with five counts of first-degree burglary.

Det. Brewer said that what occurred in the Corvallis burglaries this summer and fall is similar to crimes for which Sitton has served time. Sitton was convicted in Polk County in 2000 and in Benton County in 2001 for a series of burglaries in which he attempted to sexually assault some of his victims, Brewer said. He served five years in prison for those convictions.

In 1998, Sitton was convicted of burglary and rape in Josephine County, but he served no prison time.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Stringer said the new charges are preliminary and may change, depending on what happens in further hearings.

Stringer said the definition of burglary is entering and staying in a home with the intent to commit a crime. One of the burglary charges states that the intended crime was rape or sexual abuse. The intended crimes in the other four burglaries were listed as harassment and theft.

All five of the burglaries occurred at homes within half a mile of the Oregon State University campus.

After Sitton's arrest, detectives obtained a warrant to search his home at 1117 S.E. Queen Ave. in Albany. Police discovered women's undergarments, a hand-woven purse and other personal items in Sitton's home that victims of the Corvallis burglaries identified as their property, Brewer said.

Sitton already had been jailed on a parole violation when he was arrested on Dec. 14, 2007, by the Street Crimes Unit, a three-person team consisting of two detectives from the Corvallis Police Department and one from the Benton County Sheriff's Office. He remained in the Linn County jail until May 30, when he was transferred to Benton County for court proceedings.