Ten felonies filed against Richard Orcutt for racially-based hate crime threats

Author: District Attorney's Office
Date: 7/16/2019 5:20 PM

District Attorney Dan Dow announced today that ten felony charges were filed against Richard Vincent Orcutt (62) for making racially based hate crime criminal threats against multiple victims and for unlawfully possessing an assault weapon.

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Ten felony charges were filed against Richard Vincent Orcutt (DOB 10/15/1956) for hate crimes and possessing an unlawful assault weapon.  Orcutt is charged with communicating racially motivated criminal threats where he threatened to shoot property managers and any future tenants who are of certain racial or ethnic minority groups.  After the execution of a search warrant on June 30, Richard Orcutt was arrested and booked into County Jail.  Thirty-seven firearms including handguns, rifles, shotguns, and an assault weapon, as well as a large amount of ammunition was seized at Orcutt’s house when the search warrant was executed. 

If convicted of all the charges, Orcutt faces a maximum sentence of 14 years and 8 months in the state prison. 

Richard Orcutt is scheduled to appear for further arraignment in Department 3 of the San Luis Obispo Superior Court on July 29, 2019, at 8:30 am.  He remains out of custody after having posted a $500,000 bail bond.

No further information is available at this time.

The case was investigated by the San Luis Obispo Police Department.

It is important to note that a criminal complaint contains charges that must be proven in a court of law by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the San Luis Obispo Police Department.

A copy of the complaint can be accessed here.  A copy of the defendants booking photo can be found here.

Please contact Assistant District Attorney Eric J. Dobroth at 805.781.5819 with any questions.