A Florida dentist faces federal charges for sending dozens of racist and violent messages to several victims for nearly a year after ignoring warnings from the FBI.
Richard Glenn Kantwill could spend up to 15 years in prison if he’s convicted on the three counts of interstate transmission of a threat to injure that authorities charged him with.
Federal prosecutors say the 60-year-old dentist from Tampa, Florida, sent nearly 100 death threats and “disturbing” messages to 42 victims between August 2019 and July 2020. He reportedly used email, social media, and text messages to relay his threats.
The FBI spoke to Kantwill in October 2019 and warned him to stop after one victim reported the dentist to law enforcement.
Despite the warning, Kantwill continued his onslaught of harassment for 10 more months, according to court documents.
Prosecutors alleged that Kantwill “repeatedly sent threatening messages to people across the country who didn’t maintain the same beliefs as he did.”
In one message, he wrote, “cannot wait to shoot your ghetto (expletive) in the street…you will die like every other [redacted] piece of s***.”
In another message, Kantwill wrote, “Take note because liberal [redacted] like you get raped in alleys, by really big black guys that serve our cause. So, you [redacted] are going to get raped by at least 5 [redacted] and do nothing. You are the number 1 target, you degenerate [redacted].”
The FBI tried to confront Kantwill again in July 2021, but he refused and rejected the notion he was “doing anything illegal.”
Then, he texted two middle finger emojis to an FBI agent, writing “(expletive) YOU,” according to the Miami Herald.
Many of Kantwill’s other messages were laced with racial slurs, anti-gay sentiments, and praise for former president Donald Trump.
“You, sir, are a degenerate piece of s—. read your article about The Great Donald Trump,” Kantwill wrote in one threat. “You are gay…I love what Trump does and where he stays…God bless the Great President Trump and his family. F– you and yours. Hire extra security…you’re gonna need it. I plan on f—- you up…just for the fun of it.”
In a separate threat to another victim he called a “fake Reverend”, Kantwill wrote, “We are going to kill you. Torture first, then death. You won’t see Christ….because you as re an immoral degenerate.”
According to court documents, the person who received that threat spent more than $4,500 on surveillance cameras and installation out of fear that Kantwill would take action.
Prosecutors wrote in court filings that Kantwill “blamed the Government, minorities, and other entities for being the reason he had been speaking out.”
Kantwill is a U.S. Army veteran with no criminal history and practices dentistry in Zephyrhills, a Tampa suburb. Court documents noted that he mentioned his military service in some Facebook messages and recalled “enjoying the violence,” while bragging about the many weapons he owned.
He once wrote on Facebook that he “loved creating widows and orphans,”
He was arrested on June 18 and pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces.
During his detention hearing, he reportedly went against his defense attorney’s advice and “spontaneously told the Court” that his statements were “empty threats.”
While the FBI was willing to issue an initial warning to Kantwill, Magistrate Judge Thomas Wilson was not willing to take the same chances.
“The Government presented no evidence that Dr. Kantwill is a danger to anyone,” according to the filing obtained by WFLA. “While the Government proffered that Dr. Kantwill made online threats, it presented nothing to suggest that Dr. Kantwill would ever act on these threats.”
Judge Wilson responded, “I’m not going to have somebody killed on my watch. I’m not changing my position. He will be detained.”
His attorney wrote in a court memo that Kantwill experiences depression and post-traumatic stress disorder due to his time in the military, and that he has “struggled with alcoholism.”
