A Portland man previously convicted of stalking families who have lost children in mass shootings as well as other public figures has been arraigned on charges of harassing and stalking an employee at Oregon Health & Science University whose child was murdered in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
A probable cause affidavit filed last week by prosecutors in Multnomah County Circuit Court described Kevin Purfield as “a conspiracy theorist who seeks out and terrorizes families who have lost children in mass shootings, among others.” It said Purfield had shown up at the homes of his victims as recently as September, when he arrived unannounced at the home of a staff member of Portland Mayor Keith Wilson.
Robbie Parker, a physician assistant at OHSU, lost his 6-year-old daughter Emilie in the Sandy Hook shooting, one of 20 children and six adults killed by a gunman at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Parker said in an interview Sunday that he has been consistently harassed since then by conspiracy theorists who claim the 2012 shooting was a hoax designed to increase support for gun control.
Parker has since become an outspoken advocate for parents who lost children in mass shootings and authored a book published last year about his family’s grieving process and re-traumatization amid the hateful rhetoric, “A Father’s Fight: Taking on Alex Jones and Reclaiming the Truth about Sandy Hook.” Jones, the online radio host who traffics in conspiracy theories, was found liable in 2021 for defaming the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims by spreading the falsehoods about the shooting.
Purfield, Parker said, was among the individuals who started harassing his family and friends shortly after the shooting, when he lived in Connecticut, but continued after he moved west to take a job at OHSU in 2014.
“I’ve always been on his radar,” Parker said. “The only time he hasn’t been harassing us is when he’s been incarcerated or at the state psychiatric hospital.”
Prosecutors allege that Purfield has repeatedly called OHSU looking for Parker and last month threatened that Parker would “get what was coming to him.”
Parker said he filed for a protective order in Clark County earlier this month after being contacted by OHSU officials about Purfield’s harassment of administrators and other employees in his unit.
“It bothered me because other people were getting sucked into this crazy vortex,” Parker said. “It’s a really scary place to be and I don’t like other people getting involved in this.”
On Nov. 10, Purfield was served with a permanent exclusion from OHSU and a no contact order that prohibited him from communicating with OHSU staff, prosecutors say. Then last week, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office served Purfield with a temporary restraining order barring him from any contact or attempted contact with Parker or coming within 1,000 feet of his workplace, residence, vehicle or children, the affidavit said. But Purfield repeatedly violated that order by calling Parker and other OHSU employees and leaving voicemails on at least 10 occasions, the affidavit alleges.
Police arrested Purfield on Tuesday, court records say, and he has been booked in the Multnomah County jail since. His court appointed attorney could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Purfield was previously convicted of one count of felony stalking in 2020 after harassing Therese Bottomly, the former editor of The Oregonian/OregonLive. Purfield had asserted in numerous phone calls and emails to the editor that journalists had published false information about mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater and a Pittsburgh synagogue.
He was sentenced to five years of probation, though the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office subsequently received consistent notifications that he was harassing various public figures, according to court records.
Court records show Purfield has struggled with mental illness and been ordered to receive treatment after prior convictions related to harassing people by telephone.
A Multnomah County Judge ordered him in 2013 to limit his phone use and undergo mental health treatment after he was convicted of stalking for calling family members of the Aurora shooting victims and telling them their kin had not died.
Purfield also pleaded guilty in 2013 to federal charges of making hoax bomb threats by claiming there were explosive devices at the Multnomah County Probation Office and the downtown jail building.
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