A Clatskanie man already serving federal probation for threatening to kill an Alabama pastor was arrested last week after deputies say he made 10 calls to 911 and five calls to front-office staff in a single afternoon, cursed out dispatch staff, and later screamed homophobic slurs at a police K9 on the ride to jail. Richard David Colvin, 61, now faces 10 counts of improperly using an emergency reporting system in Columbia County.
According to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, Colvin placed his first 911 call at 1:34 p.m. on Thursday, September 10, demanding that the sheriff call him back. He then made five separate calls to front office staff, screaming, cursing, and calling them inappropriate names, as reported by KATU. Deputies located Colvin at a home in Clatskanie and detected an overwhelming odor of alcoholic beverage coming from him, per the station's report.
Rather than stopping there, Colvin made nine more 911 calls in the next 11 minutes, the outlet notes. He reportedly screamed for the entirety of the trip to the Columbia County jail, yelling homophobic slurs during transport and cursing at a police K9 along the way. He was arraigned on the 10 counts on September 11.
A Pattern Stretching Back Years
This was not Colvin's first documented run-in with Columbia County dispatchers or federal authorities. Law enforcement notified his federal probation officer following the arrest, since Colvin was on federal probation and supervised release at the time, per the same account. The sheriff's office, the Portland FBI office, the Washington County Sheriff's Office, and Portland police had all previously blocked Colvin from calling them, according to the station's reporting.
In March 2024, the Columbia County Sheriff's Office investigated alleged threats Colvin made toward a Jewish community center, KATU reports. Colvin's brother told investigators at that time that Colvin does not think highly of the medical community and believes he knows better than everyone else — comments that accompanied the brother's account of Colvin's mental health condition, according to the outlet.
Federal Conviction Over a Threat to an Alabama Pastor
Colvin's history of threatening calls extends well beyond Oregon. He was charged in federal court in Alabama in 2023 after repeatedly calling First Baptist Church of Dawes, using vulgar language with staff and threatening to rape the church receptionist, per KATU's account. During a call to the church, he threatened Pastor Christopher Farmer's life if the pastor hung up. He also called the FBI field office in Mobile, Alabama.
A federal jury in Mobile ultimately convicted Colvin of one count of transmitting an interstate threat to kill in connection with the February 2024 call to pastor Christopher Farmer, according to Lagniappe Mobile. An earlier federal trial had ended in April 2025 with a jury acquitting Colvin of a separate interstate threat charge tied to a November 2023 call to Christ United Church, in which prosecutors alleged he threatened to sexually assault a 77-year-old receptionist. Colvin was ultimately sentenced to three years of probation, and per KATU, he claimed he had made 700 phone calls to the FBI special agent in charge between 2010 and 2022.
Federal court affidavits filed in 2024 also detailed two extended, vulgar and threatening calls Colvin made to the FBI's Mobile field office that May, Lagniappe Mobile reported. Colvin was indicted in federal court that June. In those same proceedings, Colvin's brother — a Mobile County Sheriff's deputy — told FBI investigators that Colvin's persistent harassment of agencies and churches was driven by untreated mental illness and a long-standing religious obsession.
Oregon's 911 Abuse Law and a North Portland Newspaper Left in Limbo
Under Oregon Revised Statute 165.570, knowingly dialing 911 for non-emergency purposes is classified as improper use of an emergency communications system, a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to 364 days in jail and fines up to $6,250, according to the Oregon State Legislature. The same statute extends those penalties to non-emergency calls made to statewide safety tip lines such as SafeOregon. The statute applies when a person knowingly uses emergency services for a non-emergency purpose.
Columbia County's dispatch operation, which fielded the barrage of calls, was formed under ORS Chapters 198 and 403 and serves as the county's sole public safety answering point, according to the Columbia 9-1-1 Communications District.
Colvin's legal troubles have also had a civic ripple effect in Oregon. He acquired ownership of North Portland's historic St. Johns Review newspaper in December 2022 after serving as its webmaster, but his 2024 arrest in Alabama caused severe operational disruption and threw the publication into disarray, as Willamette Week reported at the time.
