Rocky Mountain Fur Con backs neo-nazis, sex offender to intimidate critic for reporting threat.

by Dogpatch Press Staff

A Dogpatch Press exclusive report for community interest.

BACKGROUND: A neo-nazi cult-like group (the “Furry Raiders”) is agitating the Colorado Furries.  They recruit members with gifts, grooming, and manipulation.  It makes a classic appeal to people who are desperate to belong to a group. The Furry Raiders self-create an “us vs. them” situation by provoking others so they can pretend to be treated unfairly.   Their trolling includes assault, spreading hate speech, display of nazi-style apparel, refusing to honor meet rules, posting photos of people against their wishes, doxxing enemies to harrass them on the phone, and persistent straw-man attacks at “SJW’s”. In 2016, they provoked wider attention when they tried to gain power at Rocky Mountain Fur Con by interfering with the hotel room block.  In early 2017, they gained more mainstream news headlines.

There is a spotlight on furries and the subculture they love. This report, with participation of many concerned Colorado furries, is not to sensationalize the fringe so media can mischaracterize the rest. Their message is that they care enough to oppose malicious behavior, so protecting a superficial image is less important than making a good community.

Deo, a steelworker in the midwest, was upset about the trolls.  They were ruining what the furry community represents to her.

It made her connect current events to the problem.  She tweeted about punching Nazis.  It was a rhetorical comment in line with the patriotic spirit of entire generations of Americans since WWII.

A troll answered to threaten her.  It involved Rocky Mountain Fur Con.  Deo had never gone and wasn’t planning to go, but cared enough about other furs to notify police and hotel security.* Deo says: “It started when a Furry Raider member @Oliviameles threatened to bring a gun to RMFC – I contacted RMFC con security to warn them.  I never received a reply to my email.” 

(*Update: on 7/16/17, clarification was requested. Deo gave an accurate quote of emailing the con only. It was lumped with “hotel” the con was in, an editing error referencing the quote and email I saw. Deo didn’t contact the hotel or police in Colorado. I was told of consulting local jurisdiction about her safety but they wouldn’t pursue net activity.

In the below screenshot: 1) Deo’s 1/26/17 tweet is a meme joke about that week’s much hyped news of Richard Spencer being punched. 2) The chair and staff of RMFC confirmed that there were many threats before and after Deo’s tweet and the hotel did not act until March.)

To understand what Deo experienced next, you should know:

  • After the “Furry Raiders” interfered with RMFC 2016, the con is under fire for continuing to accept them, having staff defend them, and even having “Raiders” on the inside as staff.
  • The founder of RMFC, Kahuki, is reputed to take pride in his con never banning anyone, including those banned by other cons. Colorado Fur Boiler saw it happen in a Facebook group: “Kahuki came in, told us his title – and bragged that he ignored warnings from other cons and people about potentially problematic or dangerous congoers – and that he has never had to ban anyone from RMFC – and nor could he see doing so in the forseeable future. That was posted on the Colorado Furries FB before a mod deleted it.” Colorado fur Timber saw it too: “He was bragging about how no one had been banned, and they didn’t listen to other conventions.”

When Deo reported the threat, Twitter banned the troll account.  But RMFC didn’t answer.  Or so it seemed until two months later.  That’s when things turned upside down.  Following her report, she seems to be the first person to ever get banned from the con.   The delivery method is eye-popping.  When your eyes recover, get ready for an article series.  Dogpatch Press will expose:

  • The individuals behind a scandal.
  • The way it came out.
  • Why it won’t just go away.
  • How concerned people are working for real solutions.

Remember what happened to ConFurence, Rainfurrest and Oklacon?  There’s an opening for a new entry to that list. And that’s just a start.

Here’s the response letter Deo got after she reported the threat:

Deo says: “When I got the letter I was worried, scared. I knew the claims were false, but how much money would I lose paying a lawyer to defend me from frivolous litigation and lies? Was my house in jeopardy? I have two roommates, both furry artists, I was worried about how this would affect them.  The letter is intimidating, threatening, and before I talked to lawyers and found out about Sovereign Citizens I wasn’t sure what to make of it.”

If you have even a mild level of sophistication with this stuff, you can tell that no real licensed lawyer would use this kind of garbled pretend-legalese.  It includes the bogus numbered accusations, a made up “law” that’s just misspelled latin, and the threats against Deo’s home.  You may be able to pick out “dog-whistle” language that spells out “Sovereign Citizen” (notice the “fingerprint seal”.)

Sovereign Citizens are an extremist anti-government movement whose members believe that US law doesn’t apply to them.  They think they can just make up their own law and enforce it with guns.  Filing false liens against property is one of their tactics to cause a nuisance. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, they believe they “get to decide which laws to obey and which to ignore”, are “rooted in racism and anti-Semitism,” and do “acts of deadly violence”.

So who is Kendal Emery, the guy signing this?  Why is he upset enough about a critic to attack them supposedly on behalf of RMFC?

Search Kendal Emery on the Colorado Sex Offender list. Compare Facebook profile pics.  They confirm he’s a member of Colorado Furries using the handles “Kahuki Otter/Kahuki Lairu“.

Wow… this is embarrassing!  Kendal/Kahuki founded RMFC.  He’s the founder who is proud of the con for never banning anyone.  That’s ironic because in 2008 he was forced to step down as con chair when people discovered his sex offending.  It appeared that they were parting ways when he stepped down and current chair Sorin took his place.

Surely those named in the letter for suffering damage (including RMFC and BLFC) couldn’t be genuinely connected to Kendal/Kahuki’s threat!  Could they? Deo asked BLFC and they said they had nothing to do with it, but the letter was official.  She contacted Sorin, chair of RMFC:

Sorin is fully aware of this (it’s confirmed from other sources too.)  This isn’t just a felon pretending to have legal authority to intimidate critics with fake “Sovereign Citizen” language.  Sorin is supporting Kahuki to represent a con that supposedly dumped him, and use the RMFC name for threats.  Kahuki still owns RMFC and that 2008 scandal was just brushed under the rug.

For confirmation, the address on the threat letter and Sorin’s reply does match RMFC’s organizing corp under Kahuki’s name:

There’s more entries on Kahuki’s legal record. They’re not necessarily worth mentioning about a random person, but this is a CEO for a nonprofit.

The rabbit hole goes deeper.  It appears that the “Sovereign Citizen” gibberish in Kahuki’s letter has another source: his friend Scorch, AKA Rodney Brian Graff.  Scorch is on RMFC’s board.  Compare his archived comments from the Colorado Furries FA group, where he defends the Furry Raiders and Kahuki’s sex offense.  Or the legal gibberish on his FA profile where he claims to be a “self taught law student.” Or his “official” ID which is something special to behold.

Scorch has other interesting stuff on his website.  Poke around in the public directory to find stuff concerned with 9/11 trutherism, the “flat earth”, so-called alternative physics, or this collection of photos of dolphin genitalia. But never mind all that… being weird is one thing; this story is another.

TL;DR:

  • A neo-nazi style group is invading furry fandom.
  • RMFC and some of its staff and board defends them by threatening critics.
  • Threats are coming from a sex offender who supposedly stepped down from operating RMFC but still owns and represents it.

You couldn’t write a Troma movie this bad.  The con was operating with pride in welcoming the worst of the fandom, until a critical tweet and safety report angered them enough to threaten a regular fur (who wasn’t even attending).

Deo says: “This situation is a mess. I have a convicted felon who found my name and address and is sending me threatening letters in which he pretends to be a lawyer.  Obviously things within RMFC, and it’s parent corporation MAAAC are seriously wrong if the Board of Directors chose to intimidate me into silence rather than make a public statement about the security of the con and the safety of RMFC attendees.”

Why does Deo care? “The furry fandom is this amazing place full of wonderful creative people. I’ve been so blessed to be a part of it, I love this fandom. Most of my friends are furries, and without those friends I’d be lost.”

Stay tuned for the next parts, when Dogpatch Press covers even more news tied to fascist furries. We are committed to supporting the community and power of the press.  Notices to us are subject to publication. Threats will be defended with maximum power to expose the truth.

Update: the founder of the Furry Raiders was arrested in April 2019 for sex offending on a date that lines up with RMFC 2015.