Retired SLO firefighter sues neighbors who spoke to police in hate crimes case
A retired San Luis Obispo firefighter once accused of sending racist and threatening notes to his ethnic minority neighbors is now suing other neighbors who identified him as the likely sender to police detectives.
Richard Vincent Orcutt, whose felony charges were dropped in September after an FBI handwriting expert told prosecutors she could not determine whether he wrote the notes in question, filed the lawsuits against four neighbors Monday.
Orcutt — who initially faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted of 10 felonies — seeks $1 million to $2 million in damages against each of the four neighbors, whom he claims maliciously shared information to police and on social media that Orcutt had been “a threatening racist for the past 20 years.”
“These statements were asserted as facts, not opinions, were false and were made negligently, recklessly, intentionally, with malice, were unprivileged, and actually/proximately caused Richard Orcutt injury to his reputation,” the complaint says. “The statements expressly and impliedly caused third parties to reasonably believe Richard Orcutt was racist and engaged in criminal behavior for long duration (20 years).”
Orcutt’s lawsuits allege that the neighbors also told police that he owned “an arsenal” of firearms and threatened to use them over various grievances in incidents dating back to the late 1990s.
At the time of Orcutt’s arrest, the SLO County Regional SWAT Team seized more than three dozen handguns, shotguns and semi-automatic rifles, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition, from his home.
Orcutt, 63, was charged with threatening to commit a crime of violence with hate crime enhancements, as well as possessing an assault weapon, an SGM Stag Arms Stag 15 rifle. The District Attorney’s Office contended that because Orcutt was convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence charge in 1998, he is not legally permitted to possess the weapons.
Orcutt challenged that allegation, and it was unclear Thursday whether the weapons remain in police custody.
Orcutt’s attorney, Darren Murphy, a former San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputy, did not respond to requests for comment.
The civil case is scheduled to be heard in San Luis Obispo Superior Court in April. Orcutt’s neighbors have not yet filed any responses in court.
Letters said neighbors ‘all need to be shot’
After Orcutt’s case dragged on in court for well over a year, it was dismissed in the interest of justice in September on a motion by the District Attorney’s Office after an FBI handwriting expert said it was not likely he sent the letters.
Copies of some of the letters released in court records ahead of a planned preliminary hearing Sept. 24 show that someone sent handwritten letters to several local managers of properties in the 1300 block of Cavalier Lane threatening violence if they rent to ethnic minorities and “homosexuals.”
The letters specifically warned against renting properties to Chinese, Filipino and Mexican residents, and that both they and the owners would be shot.
They claimed that there were “too many strange people walking up and down our streets,” and demanded that “your renters must be American.”
Another complained that a “gay male roommate” at one property “is engaging in homosexual activity.”
“They all need to be shot,” the letter reads.
Each letter concludes with “Enough is enough!”
Following an investigation by San Luis Obispo police detectives, Orcutt was arrested in June 2019 at his home on Cavalier Lane. He was released from County Jail after posting $500,000 bail.
Sheriff’s and state Department of Justice forensics investigators did not find Orcutt’s fingerprints or DNA on the letters, placing much of the prosecution’s case on the FBI expert document examiner, who conducted three separate analyses, court records show.
Orcutt sat down with a District Attorney’s Office investigator for three hours and re-wrote the threatening letters verbatim.
Records show the first two comparisons resulted in “no conclusion.” The expert ruled after a third that Orcutt “may not have” been the author, a category that finds significant dissimilarities but at least one limitation exists that prevents total elimination.
According to court records, Orcutt denied having anything to do with the letters and told officers during his arrest that he was being “swatted,” or was the target of a false police report aimed at generating a heavily armed police response.
His criminal defense attorney, Jeff Radding, previously told The Tribune that the ordeal cost Orcutt thousands of dollars, and that the perpetrator remains at large in San Luis Obispo.
“A crime occurred. Those cards are absolutely horrendous,” Radding said.
Neighbors identified Orcutt
Court records show investigators turned their attention to Orcutt primarily due to his apparently disgruntled contacts with a police officer assigned to his neighborhood district, and Orcutt’s discussions with his neighbors.
In one of three defamation lawsuits Orcutt filed Monday against four city residents, Orcutt alleges one neighbor posted comments on Facebook following Orcutt’s arrest saying that she “had been threatened by him multiple times and (was) in fear” of her life, and compared Orcutt to a bomb, “or someone who would erupt after having a ‘detonator pulled,’” according to the lawsuit.
During another incident in 1999, Orcutt alleges, a neighbor called police after Orcutt caught her son sitting in his truck bed and the neighbor allegedly told SLOPD that Orcutt threatened: “I have a gun and I’m going to use my arsenal if you don’t keep your kids away from my truck.”
According to Orcutt’s lawsuits, another neighbor of Guamanian descent allegedly told police that Orcutt had told him to “get out of my country,” and that “it’s your cultural background, it’s where you’re from.”
Orcutt lists a series of tense interactions with neighbors and their alleged statements to police recounting his allegedly racist comments, but says none of them are true.
