Florida dentist accused of sending threatening message to Oregon minister

A 60-year-old Florida dentist has been charged with sending threats and disturbing messages to politicians, celebrities, authors and others. including an Oregon minister who disagreed with his political beliefs, according to prosecutors.

The Rev. Chuck Currie, a Portland United Church of Christ pastor and University of the Pacific chaplain emeritus, identified himself as “Victim 2” in the indictment charging Richard Glenn Kantwill with three counts of interstate transmission of a threat to harm another.

On September 24, 2019, Kantwill sent a text message to Currie, threatening to torture and kill him, calling him an “immoral degenerate” and a false minister, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said the text originated in Tampa and that “Victim 2” installed surveillance cameras worth nearly $4,500 because of her genuine fear of Kantwill, according to court records.

In emails to news organizations and in social media posts, Currie wrote Monday that “it is imperative to our democracy that those who make violent and obscene threats against people with whom they disagree politically are held accountable for their crimes.

He thanked the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for arresting Kantwill and said he would continue to speak out against any form of discrimination.

Kantwill sent threats via social media, email and text messages to approximately 42 different people between August 2019 and July 2020, according to federal prosecutors in Florida. But investigators were only able to link Kantwill to a handful of threats through an IP address proving he was in Florida when they were sent, prosecutors wrote in court records.

In another message sent in September 2019, he wrote to another victim: “God bless the great President Trump and his family. Fuck you and yours. Hire extra security…you’ll need it.

The FBI interviewed Kantwill on October 15, 2019, after receiving a complaint about his posts. During that interview, federal agents warned him that his messages were perceived as threatening and that he should stop, according to prosecutors.

Yet Kantwill spent the next 10 months sending more threats to more than 40 people, prosecutors say.

In some of his Facebook posts, Kantwill is accused of bragging about his gun collection, stating that he had a large collection that he would “NEVER give back.” He also sought to buy “automatic and highly illegal” firearms from a Facebook user, Assistant U.S. Attorney Abigail K. King wrote in a memo requesting Kantwill’s detention.

Kantwill was arrested June 18 and remains in the Pinellas County Jail in Tampa on a federal hold.

Kantwill’s attorney, Samuel E. Landes, last week urged a judge to release the dentist. Kantwill served as an Army captain in Iraq and developed depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and also struggled with alcoholism. Landes wrote to the court.

“Despite this, he has lived six decades without committing any crime: he has no criminal history,” Landes said.

“The government has presented no evidence – and there is none – that Dr. Kantwill has any inclination to act on any of these threats,” Landes wrote. “Indeed, against the advice of counsel, Dr. Kantwill spontaneously told the Court during the detention hearing that his statements were “empty threats.” The government has not presented any evidence to suggest that Dr. Kantwill poses a flight risk, and there is none.

King, the prosecutor, countered that Kantwill repeatedly sent threatening messages to people across the country who did not share the same beliefs as him. He used explicit language to detail exactly how he planned to harm or kill individuals, she wrote.

A federal magistrate judge ordered Kantwill’s continued detention, but requested that additional information be submitted to both sides.

According to prosecutors, the dentist broke the terms of an agreement to voluntarily retire from practicing medicine after relapsing under alcohol while battling his addiction in 2007 and was reprimanded and sentenced to a fined by the Florida Board of Dentistry. His dental license, however, remains valid until 2026, according to state records.

— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Contact her at 503-221-8212, [email protected], follow her on @maxoregonianor on LinkedIn.

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