WA - Scott Anthony Orton - Arrested Suspicion of Online Death Threats

[bluesneakers]

Man arrested for allegedly threatening exec at Placerville biotech firm tied to Planned Parenthood

A Washington state man has been charged in Sacramento federal court with making threats against an individual at a Placerville biotech firm publicly connected to Planned Parenthood’s handling of fetal tissue and organs.
...
Orton, 57, was arrested Tuesday at his home by a deputy U.S. marshal. Despite the government’s request that he be held without bail, a federal magistrate judge ordered Orton set free the next day on an unsecured appearance bond and directed him to appear in the Sacramento court Dec. 29.
...
Two days later, Orton posted his first message on the Internet: “The management of StemExpress should be taken by force and killed in the streets today,” according to a log of the messages included in an affidavit of FBI Special Agent David Rubel, filed in support of the complaint against Orton.

Over the next four hours, according to the log, Orton posted 18 additional messages ranging from “Kill StemExpress employees. I’ll pay you for it” and “Stop the death of innocents. Kill the killers,” to “StemExpress your lives don’t matter nearly as much as your deaths do” and “I think I’ll take a little trip to Placerville this weekend. I hear there’s some good hunting down Placerville way ...”
...
Agents traced the messages to Orton, which were posted on the Fox Nation website by user “Joseywhales,’ a handle that may refer to “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” a 1976 movie directed and starring Clint Eastwood as a farmer whose family is murdered by Union soldiers during the Civil War. Fox News cooperated fully with the FBI in its investigation, according to the affidavit.

 

[bluesneakers]

Sacramento judge frees man who admits threatening Placerville biotech executives

A Sacramento federal judge last week refused to hold a man in jail who has admitted directing murderous threats at the founder and employees of a Placerville biotech firm mentioned in a viral YouTube video as a recipient of fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood.

Catherine “Cate” Dyer says she and employees of her company, StemExpress LLC, are terrified that Scott Anthony Orton or someone else will make good on the threats.

Despite Dyer’s pleas and prosecutors’ arguments that Orton should be held without bail, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman allowed him to remain free pending trial on an unsecured appearance bond ordered by a judge in Washington.

If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in prison. A Feb. 9 status conference is set before U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez.

Despite Dyer’s pleas and prosecutors’ arguments that Orton should be held without bail, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman allowed him to remain free pending trial on an unsecured appearance bond ordered by a judge in Washington.
...

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gregory Gruber in Tacoma and Brian Fogerty in Sacramento insisted that the charge against Orton is a crime of violence, which carries a legal presumption that he is dangerous. But Newman in Sacramento and U.S. Magistrate Judge David W. Christel in Tacoma rejected the argument.