A CARMEL Valley man who for years has been “fixated” on 5th District Supervisor Dave Potter has been stockpiling firearms and obtained a dozen “high-end” handguns in the last year, according to police.

Two weeks ago, Potter obtained a restraining order against David Fairhurst, 47, who has allegedly left dozens of threatening and harassing phone messages at Potter’s Monterey office through the years.

“I am fearful because of Fairhurst’s behavior and his possession of numerous firearms ... that he will escalate his behavior to actual violence soon,” Potter said, according to the restraining order.

The order requires Fairhurst to stay at least 200 yards away from Potter, and Potter’s home and office, and not contact Potter, including leaving messages.

The court order also required him to surrender his firearms to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, which he reportedly did Friday.

Potter told The Pine Cone last week that Fairhurst first began leaving threatening messages for him years ago after Potter wouldn’t intervene in a dispute Fairhurst had with the sheriff’s office.

In 2003, Fairhurst’s phone threats, which allegedly included telling Potter he would kill him and his entire staff, ended up with the C.V. man later being placed on probation.

After not contacting Potter for three years, Fairhurst left two “hostile” messages, the most recent on Nov. 1, Potter said.

According to Potter, in his most recent messages, Fairhurst “is now being careful to not make direct threats, and makes references to not making threats such as, ‘I won’t say it,’ and, ‘Oh, wait, can that be construed as a threat?’ and, ‘You know what I mean.’”

The Pine Cone could not reach Fairhurst, who has a disconnected phone number. Monterey attorney Larry Biegel, who had represented Fairhurst, declined to discuss his client.

Fairhurst’s recent messages are being taken so seriously that Potter last week was accompanied by a sheriff’s deputy when he was in public. Another deputy was assigned to guard Potter’s Monterey office. The protection ended Friday, the same day Fairhurst turned in his guns.


Bizarre messages

All of Fairhurst’s voicemail messages since 2003 have been left after hours at Potter’s office. Potter said he has never met or spoken to Fairhurst. Fairhurst reportedly began calling Potter’s office nearly a decade ago.

According to Potter, in his messages, “Fairhurst has said things like ‘I’d love to take my boot and your face, but I won’t say it. But you know what I mean.’”
According to court records, Potter said “Fairhurst also has said several times recently that Satan has a special place for me and that Satan is waiting for me and my staff, and that I belong in the seventh level of Hell.”

Fairhurst also said he wishes Potter was “back in Worcester (Mass.) underneath the big ice penguin over there by the big old cemeteries. I think that’s where you belong,” according to Potter, who lived in Massachusetts before moving to the Peninsula.

In 2004, after being charged with leaving messages for Potter, Fairhurst pleaded guilty to threatening a public official and making telephone calls with the intent to annoy. While on probation from 2004 to 2007 Fairhurst did not contact Potter.

In light of the new messages, Potter, according to court documents, said he was “concerned for his safety and the safety of his staff.”


Stockpiling guns

In a Nov. 7 court document authorizing officials to take away Fairhurst’s guns, Monterey County Deputy County Counsel Traci Kirkbride stated that Ed Lorenzana, chief of enforcement operations for the sheriff’s office, was concerned about Fairhurst’s firearms because of his “demonstrated volatile nature.”
Sheriff’s office detective Mark Stevens told Kirkbride that Fairhurst “was apparently stockpiling guns.”

Sheriff’s officials said Potter and his staff are “extremely concerned for their safety, especially due to the location of supervisor Potter’s office in the corner of the lower level of the Monterey courthouse and its openness and proximity to a heavily wooded area,” according to court records.