Man Charged in Attempt to Extort Oxnard Family

Federal prosecutors Monday charged a 50-year-old Ventura computer programmer with trying to extort $500,000 from an Oxnard family for which his wife once worked as a housekeeper.

Robert Carl Johnson is suspected of sending a threatening extortion letter last week to the family of Eric Huntsinger, a Mandalay Bay resident whose grandfather founded an international oil drilling company and whose father is a prominent Ojai Valley rancher.

Johnson’s wife, whom authorities did not identify, was not arrested. Johnson told agents he committed the crime alone and his wife was not involved, according to a prosecutor’s affidavit.

Agents arrested Johnson on Friday night after he collected cash that Huntsinger had dropped in a field near Oxnard, authorities said. He was arraigned Monday before a U.S. magistrate in Santa Barbara.

Investigators say the Huntsinger family received a typewritten letter in the mail Oct. 19, which read:

“We require you to make an involuntary contribution to our organization in the amount of $500,000 cash. Failure to pay will risk the health and well-being of any one of your family of four children, ages 9 to 1, brothers, sisters and both your parents. Your refusal to comply will result in serious retaliation of a permanent nature.”

The letter instructed the family to place bills no larger than $20 denominations in a pillowcase wrapped in duct tape, then drop it along a country road between 10 and 11 p.m. Friday.

Huntsinger contacted Oxnard police, who notified the FBI because of the use of the U.S. mail to commit a crime. Then, while investigators watched, Huntsinger complied with the instructions.

About 11 p.m., authorities say, they saw Johnson drive by, take the cash and speed away. Investigators then made the arrest.

Eric Huntsinger is the son of Carl Huntsinger, who farms citrus in the Ojai Valley and owns property in the old oil field area in west Ventura.

His grandfather was Fritz Huntsinger Sr., who built his Ventura-based Vetco Offshore into a large company that supplied drilling services to oil companies around the world.