Owner of small-town newspaper accused of threatening to rape elderly church receptionist
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The owner of a North Portland newspaper has been arrested and charged after he allegedly told an elderly church receptionist in another state that he was going to kidnap her, keep her in a cage, and rape her.
And she allegedly is not the only church worker who he’s harassed.
An FBI affidavit accuses Richard Colvin, 60, the owner of the St John’s Review newspaper, of making harassing calls to law enforcement offices and religious groups in Oregon well before he made the call to the church in Mobile, Alabama, according to the Willamette Week.
Colvin was booked at the Baldwin County Jail on June 10 after he was charged for making threats to the worker.
In the calls, Colvin allegedly told a 77-year-old receptionist at Christ United Church that he was going to “repeatedly rape her” after he locked her in a cage, according to the FBI affidavit. He also allegedly said he would cut his genitals off and use it to violate the woman.
Anytime the woman tried to interrupt the rant, Colvin allegedly called her a “motherf****** b****.”
He allegedly called the church’s prayer lines multiple times to share his thoughts over a recent split in the Methodist Church for its stance on gay people in the faith.
“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 a f****** d***,” he allegedly said on a call, according to the affidavit.
He also allegedly called and harassed the FBI’s field office in Portland and the Portland Police Bureau. They reportedly blocked his number, according to the FBI.
On June 11, Colvin was granted permission to undergo a psychiatric exam at his attorneys’ request. Colvin’s attorney, Jan Jones, wrote in a filing that Colvin had a “long-standing history of documented mental illness,” according to the Willamette Week.
It’s unclear if the St Johns Review will continue to publish with its owner behind bars and awaiting a court date.
Colvin and the paper’s director, Anisha Scanlon, are reportedly working to transfer the paper’s ownership to her so she can continue to run the publication. If she takes over, she’ll be saddled with a $10,000 debt for outstanding bills before the next edition can go to print.
Scanlon said the issues she’s facing trying to keep the small paper alive were “not issues I have created” or knew about prior to Colvin’s jailing.
“I need these problems to not be associated with me or the paper’s future. These need to go away,” she told the Wilamette Week.
A prior owner of the paper, Gayla Patton, told the publication that she wanted “nothing to do” with Colvin, his employees or the “mess” that the paper had become, in her opinion. She sold the paper in 2022 to Colvin.
