Bear Valley Springs Knows the True Horrors of Kevin P. Rice

Heeeeeere’s Kevin!

I haven’t written about the self-proclaimed, hard right extremist and self-proclaimed “activist” Kevin P. Rice lately. Honestly, that’s a good thing. When he left San Luis Obispo County in 2020, I thought: good riddance! Like many, I grew tired of his patently unhinged robocalls, litigious harassment of perceived political adversaries, and incessantly juvenile social media trolling. His incessant need of being the center of attention was grating.

Then seemingly out of the blue, I heard from several residents from the small community of Bear Valley Springs, California about Rice. They reached out to me after reading my 2019 book Defamers: How Fake News Terrorized a Community & Those Who Dared to Fight It, where I catalogued Rice’s antics in San Luis Obispo County. Before they asked me about him specifically and my experiences with him, several of them posed the same question: Can a restraining order be filed against Kevin P. Rice?

The small guarded-gate community is located in Kern County, specifically the Tehachapi Mountains. Bear Valley Springs is approximately 183 miles east of San Luis Obispo County. It’s also the community where Rice currently resides.

On January 23 this year, Rice reportedly walked into the Bear Valley Community Services District (“BVCSD”) office and threatened several employees in their office. This is according to three sources knowledgeable of the incident who did not want to go on the record due to retaliation concerns. The incident was logged by the Bear Valley Police Dept. Though Police Chief Dan Suttles did not respond to comments about the incident, one current and one former law enforcement official confirmed the incident took place and an incident report was filed. Rice himself partially corroborated his confrontation with staff. In a Fair Political Practices Commission complaint he filed on Jan. 25, Rice secretly recorded a terse and hostile conversation he had with Kristy McEwen, Assistant to the BVCSD General Manager. McEwen was unaware she was being recorded until Rice transcribed their conversation and provided it to the district via email.

One of the employees claimed Rice followed them to their home shortly after the incident occurred. Because of my history with Rice in which he personally harassed and…