Man accused of threatening SLO County DA could get reduced prison time in plea deal
A Missouri man who allegedly threatened to kill District Attorney Dan Dow and bomb a San Luis Obispo County school plans to plead guilty in order to secure a shorter prison sentence, according to a proposed plea deal.
David William Platek, 41, of Springfield, Missouri, was arrested on Jan. 24, 2025, and charged with interstate criminal threats by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly texting several “true threats” to a friend in December 2024 indicating his intent to murder a SLO County public official, their family and 400 people — “mostly children” — at a local school.
Dow previously confirmed to The Tribune he was the subject of the threats.
Platek was federally indicted first in California, then later in Missouri on four felony counts of interstate criminal threats. He now awaits a mental health evaluation and trial, scheduled for July 6.
Now, a potential plea deal filed with the court on Wednesday is currently in the works and would avoid a trial, but it has yet to be signed by the prosecution or defense attorneys. The exact status of the deal is unclear at this time.
Despite Platek previously pleading not guilty, but the agreement states that he would switch his plea to guilty and accept a felony conviction for one count of making criminal threats. The other three counts would be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the same charges could never be brought against Platek again.
The maximum sentence for the crime is five years and no more than a $250,000 fine, but the deal would bring Platek’s sentence down to two years in prison with three years of supervised probation, during which time he would be barred from contacting Dow or his family, according to the agreement.
The draft deal must be agreed upon by both parties before it is presented to the judge for final approval. The judge has the discretion to reject the agreement and try Platek for all four counts.
Normally, the acceptance of a plea agreement would precede a sentencing hearing, but Platek’s defense has requested that the sentence be administered at the same time as the plea judgment. No calendar date has been set by the court to do so as yet.
Neither of Platek’s defense attorneys nor the U.S. prosecutors immediately responded to The Tribune’s requests for comment.
Missouri man threatened SLO DA and school in revenge plot
The threats allegedly came after Platek was charged by the District Attorney’s Office in 2019 in an identify theft case.
The DA’s Office had previously charged Platek with felony identity theft for posing as a SLO County political activist on Facebook. Those charges were later dismissed.
However, those proceedings triggered a revenge plot by Platek in the ensuing years, according to the plea deal, and he “blamed (Dow) for his prosecution, his ‘self-exile’ to Missouri and his inability to find employment.”
In December 2024, Platek sent 125 pages of texts to a friend containing threats to commit acts of violence against Dow and SLO County schoolchildren, the draft deal said.
“I’d rather be remembered as a killer,” one of the texts cited in the plea deal read. ”I was a decent person before (Dow), and I don’t care how I’m remembered for two weeks before I’m forgotten forever.”
“SLO wants to destroy my life. I’ll blow up one of their schools,” Platek said in another.
“Bullets are cheap and children are plentiful,” yet another read.
Platek talked about bombing the school attended by Dow’s children but wrote that he would let them live “with the guilt of watching their classmates die,” the draft deal said.
Platek will admit to all these actions in the plea deal — but only if it goes through.
For now, Dow said he was putting his faith in the system, even as he believes Platek is still a threat to him, his family and the community.
“My wife and I are very concerned that Mr. Platek is still a great risk to our family and to the public at large given the seriousness of his stated intent to murder my children and to commit mass violence targeting children at schools,” Dow told The Tribune in a statement about the plea deal.
“We have provided our concerns to the assigned prosecutor, and we must now trust the process,” he added. “If he pleads or is convicted by trial, we trust that the assigned federal judge will give Mr. Platek an appropriate sentence under federal law.”
