Dentist ‘bragged about enjoying violence’ in chilling messages and ‘made threats over Trump chat’
An American dentist was in court for allegedly sending ‘death’ and ‘harm’ messages through social media to people about ‘enjoying violence’ for disagreeing with him about Trump. A dentist was recently charged with sending death threats and harmful messages to people who disagreed with him about Donald Trump.
Richard Glenn Kantwill has been charged with three counts of interstate transmission of a threat to injury, and now faces 15 years of prison sentence after he allegedly sent 100 death threats to more than 40 victims between August 2019 and July 2020.
The politically charged messages were sent through email, social media, and text messages, and the severity caused one victim to spend thousands on security cameras. The 60-year-old was arrested on June 18 following his threats to politicians, celebrities, authors, and many other officials, as revealed in the court documents.
One victim who spent $4,500 on security cameras told the court that Richard called him, an “anti-Christian piece of ****,” and then added, “Torture first, then death”. Richard told one victim who he disagreed with on Donald Trump, “**** you and yours. Hire extra security […] you’re gonna need it. I plan on ******* you up […] just for the fun of it”, and then further called him “degenerated piece of ****.”
Not only this, he told another victim he “cannot wait to shoot your ghetto *** in the street.” Richard tested positive for marijuana during a pretrial test, and also suffers from PTSD, depression, and alcoholism, as confirmed in the court documents. The federal agent warned Richard to stop sending the messages back in 2019 following a complaint from one of the victims, but the dentist continued with his threatening antics.
The prosecutors argued in a pre-trial motion for detention, “Despite the FBI’s warning, Kantwill spent the next ten months sending threats to over 40 victims via social media and email.” They further added that he “repeatedly sent threatening messages to people across the country who didn’t maintain the same beliefs as he did.”
“The numerous messages Kantwill sent to various people threatening injury and death, his disdain for law and order expressed in many of his messages, his bragging about his firearms collection that he will never surrender, his expressed desire to buy illegal firearms, and his continued pattern of making threats, all show Kantwill poses a danger to the community if released,” prosecutors said.
However, when FBI agents requested to meet him again in July 2021 regarding the ongoing messages and complaints from the victims, he refused to speak with them. Richard claimed he wasn’t doing anything illegal and insisted his actions were justified.
“He blamed the Government, minorities, and other entities for being the reason he had been speaking out,” prosecutors said in the courtroom. Richard was assigned a public defender, Samuel Landes, who argued for his pre-trial release, stating that prosecutors had “no evidence” to support claims that Richard posed a “danger” to the victims.
“The Government presented no evidence that Dr. Kantwill is a danger to anyone,” the court filings stated. “While the Government asserted that Dr. Kantwill made online threats, it provided no evidence to suggest that he would ever act on these threats.”
Against his counsel’s advice, Richard told the Court that his statements were “empty threats,” according to his public defender. The 60-year-old, who received an other-than-honorable discharge from the military, has no prior criminal history.
Despite this, Judge Thomas Wilson denied the pleas for his release. “I’m not going to have somebody killed on my watch. I’m not changing my position. He will be detained,” the judge said.
