Plea agreement reached in Moorlach threat case

A Huntington Beach man pleaded guilty Monday to threatening to kill an Orange County supervisor and his family earlier this year after police tracked e-mails to his home in January.

Steve Van Arroyo, 51, was sentenced to 284 days in jail, three years of formal probation and to complete a mental health program through the courts today as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

On Jan. 25, staff members of county Supervisor John Moorlach received a call from a man calling himself “Dusty” asking for Moorlach’s e-mail address. Over that weekend in January, Arroyo sent an e-mail to Moorlach threatening to have him and his family “incinerated” and saying he was going to “kill dead all five supervisors.”

Arroyo faced similar charges in 1999 when he was accused of making criminal threats over the phone, but those charges were subsequently dismissed.

— Joseph Serna