The owner of a community newspaper in Oregon is in federal custody in Alabama, accused of making multiple threats of violence in Mobile, including threatening to kidnap, cage and rape a 77-year-old church secretary, according to court records.
Richard David Colvin, a 60-year-old Mobile native, is charged with violating interstate communications.
Federal charging documents against say he is angry, in part, because of the United Methodist Church split.
According to published reports in Oregon, Colvin is the owner of The St. Johns Review, which is circulated in 13 neighborhoods in North Portland and has published a weekly or month print edition for nearly 120 years.
According to the criminal complaint, Colvin on Nov. 23, 2023 called Christ United Church in Mobile and identified himself by name.
The call was answered by the 77-year-old receptionist, and Colvin began to lash out at her.
“Colvin was extremely angry and used tremendously foul and vulgar language direct at (the receptionist),’’ wrote FBI Special Agent Michael Burton.
Colvin, the agent said, described how he was going to kidnap the woman, put her in a cage and repeatedly rape her. He said he would “cut off his own penis” and use that to sexually assault her.
Anytime the receptionist tried to speak, Colvin called her an expletive.
Between Dec. 28, 2023, and Feb. 22, 2024, Colvin called the church’s prayer line and left three voicemails, expressing his anger that Christ United Church had separated from the United Methodist Church.
The church, one of Mobile’s largest congregations, left the UMC in 2023 amid disputes over same-sex marriage and ordaining openly gay clergy.
“Y’all are blasphemers there at that church in my hometown of Mobile,’’ Colvin said.
“I can’t wait to come to church there and let you folks know just what I think about you busting up a 8 million member United Methodist Church over who’s sucking (expletive) (expletive).”
On Feb. 27, 2024, the pastor of a Baptist church in Mobile returned a call from Colvin, at which time Colvin again began to use foul language. That pastor told Colvin he wouldn’t be spoken to that way and Colvin threatened to kick his ass, the agent wrote.
The pastor hung up on him, and Colvin immediately called back. The pastor advised Colvin that he was going to put the phone in a desk drawer while he ranted.
Colvin responded, “If you do that, I’m going to come up there and (expletive) kill you.”
Colvin, according to the charging documents, called the FBI office in Mobile, blaming the agency for not investigating his reports of foreign terrorism and for his elderly mother not being allowed to receive pain medication.
He told someone at the FBI that if he was king, “I would cut your (expletive) heads off.”
He made other calls to the FBI.
FBI agents interviewed Colvin’s brother, who is a Mobile County Sheriff’s Office deputy, who told them his brother has a diagnosed mental condition and been prescribed medication for the mental condition.
He said his brother was retired from the U.S. Navy Reserves but would not seek help from the VA because he doesn’t trust the medical community.
Court records also show that while Colvin was living in Oregon, he made similar calls to the point that his phone number had been blocked by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice, the DEA, two Oregon sheriff’s departments and Portland police.
The Alabama FBI agent wrote that due to the nature and volume of Colvin’s calls, there was “ever-increasing” concern that Colvin could commit an act of violence.”
Colvin was initially placed in the Baldwin County Jail, where he said in a handwritten letter to a federal judge that he was “eating well, doing prayer groups and singing.”
Colvin has since been moved to an undisclosed lockup.
Efforts by AL.com to reach an attorney for Colvin were not immediately successful.
Colvin’s next court setting is in September.
