Convict Charged With Trying to Extort Funds Using Threats

A convict was charged Thursday with trying to extort millions of dollars from prominent Antelope Valley residents--perhaps because he learned from men convicted of such a scheme in the same area two years ago, a prosecutor said.

Prosecutors filed a nine-count complaint accusing Gregory J. Riddle, 42, a Lancaster resident now in state prison, of sending threatening letters and trying to extort money, cars and computer equipment from five people involved in this spring’s recall campaign at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center in Lancaster.

He faces up to eight years in prison if convicted, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Foltz said.

Foltz said Riddle’s roommate told authorities that Riddle may have gotten the idea when he was confined, by his account, in County Jail with Richard Faroni and Roman Makuch, convicted in 1990 of mailing several hundred “pay or die” extortion letters to many of the Antelope Valley’s most prominent residents.

Foltz said none of the recipients of the recent letters paid any money. And although the letters threatened to reveal politically “explosive and damaging” information, Foltz said there is no evidence Riddle had any such information.

Riddle lived in a condominium near the publicly operated hospital but apparently had no other connection to it, Foltz said. The prosecutor speculated that Riddle, who has a long criminal record, may have seen an opportunity in the political turbulence of the recall campaign.

Nearly 30 letters were sent to as many as 10 people between Dec. 1, 1991, and Feb. 11, which was about when Riddle was arrested in Hawaii for parole violation in a separate case and sent to prison in Chino, Foltz said.

The handwritten letters, signed by a J. Robinson, typically offered at first to help recipients by providing damaging information about the other side in the recall in exchange for money and goods, which is not illegal. Sometimes, though, the letters also threatened to “expose” the recipients.

Prosecutors only filed charges in those instances. The recipients of those letters, all recall supporters, included John Evans, the hospital’s former administrator; Cindy Fischer, a campaign contributor; Dr. Ralph Holmes, a hospital board member, and Marsha and Tom Parker, two hospital executives.

No charges were filed for the letters received by Anne Brouillette and Steve Fox, the two hospital board members targeted by recall supporters and ousted in the April election.

Foltz said investigators matched Riddle’s fingerprints to those found on one of the letters.