Man Held in Threats to Sen. Seymour

Harry Denver Hunt, a self-styled crusader for “God’s people,” was charged in Santa Ana Monday with making a series of threatening and annoying telephone calls to the office of state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim).

The 63-year-old unemployed Santa Ana resident--jailed previously for disrupting public meetings, harassing elected officials and once for attacking former congressman Jerry Patterson--was ordered held in lieu of $200,000 bail after he was arraigned on an eight-count complaint filed by the Orange County district attorney’s office.

According to the complaint, Hunt told an aide in Seymour’s Anaheim office May 13:

“I have a gun . . . . John Seymour is not politically dead, but legally dead . . . . I have to kill him.”

The complaint said Hunt had first called Seymour’s office five days earlier to complain that Christians were being placed in nursing homes against their will.

Hunt, whose voter registration certificate lists his political party as “Christian,” was charged with one felony and seven misdemeanors.

The eight counts only involve calls to Seymour’s office, although Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach), Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) and other Orange County legislators have reported recent threats or annoying phone calls to their offices from a man identifying himself as Hunt.

“He says he was doing it in the name of God’s people because he was unhappy with legislators,” said Allen. “He . . . made the statement that he was going to shoot us, and he was going to start with the Assembly,” said Allen.

“I figured I better do something, because my name starts with A,” she added.

Allen said she was unaware of Hunt’s threats until she questioned her district office staff several weeks ago about why the office doors were locked during working hours. She said she contacted the Assembly sergeant-at-arms office and the California State Police after her staff told her about the threats.

“You can’t take these things lightly,” she said.

Seymour refused to comment, saying the matter was “highly sensitive” and that state police investigators had asked that he make no public statements.

State police investigators, who arrested Hunt three blocks from his Santa Ana home last Thursday night, also refused to discuss their investigation.

Although Hunt had refused to talk with his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Randy Pacheco entered a not guilty plea on Hunt’s behalf when he appeared before Orange County Municipal Judge Barbara Tam Nomoto Monday.

Hunt, who has been forcibly removed from courtrooms and public meeting chambers numerous times in the past decade, is well known to local public officials and law enforcement personnel.

The attack on Patterson occurred November, 1979 at Saddleback High School, as the former Democratic congressman attempted to answer a question regarding the Panama Canal. Hunt, who had been seated in the front row, ran on stage and shoved Patterson before he was subdued.

He also served 40 days in jail in 1975 for disrupting a Santa Ana school board meeting.

Past Police Record

Court records also show that Hunt was arrested for contempt of court in 1972, for an annoying phone call in 1976 and for obstructing a peace officer in 1977.

Orange County marshals also detained but did not book Hunt several years ago, when they found him carrying a gun in the Orange County Courthouse.

“He has been very active in (Orange County),” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Bauer, who signed the voluminous complaint charging Hunt.

“I hesitate to comment on whether he is a nut or whether he is a political aspirant with his own ideas,” added Bauer. “I’m sure there are people who think I’m a nut.”