When a Vengeful Sociopath Meets a Personality Cult
Aaron Ochs is the author of “Defamers: How Fake News Terrorized a Community & Those Who Dared to Fight It,” a nonfiction uncovering the defamatory, deceptive and criminal practices of online tabloid CalCoastNews. Click here to subscribe to his Patreon, check out exclusive news features and more.
On Friday, I was hit with a ton of text messages at once. I can summarize what the messages were: “It was Kevin P. Rice.”
The Tribune was the first to report that Rice was the mastermind behind a bizarre and vulgar robocall that went out to San Luis Obispo County residents earlier this week. The robocall featured the voice of a middle-aged woman, enthusiastically endorsing District 3 Supervisor Adam Hill for re-election on behalf of the Ku Klux Klan while making homophobic slurs about his opponent Stacy Korsgaden.
After Korsgaden submitted a complaint to law enforcement, District Attorney Dan Dow announced his office was going to investigate the robocall in an attempt to uncover the anonymous source. This led the robocaller to walk back their incendiary message with a new call, claiming they were simply providing “satire and lampoon, not unlike ‘Saturday Night Live’ skits or ‘South Park’ episodes.” The caller denied the robocall was fake, claiming “[their] granddaddy really did receive the Hero’s Cross from the KKK.”
