Man plotted to kill SLO County district attorney, sentenced to prison

August 25, 2026

By KAREN VELIE

The man accused of plotting to kill San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow, his wife and two children was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison on Tuesday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Because of time served, David Platek is slated to be released in Jan. 2027.

Upon release, Platek is required to spend three years on supervised release and not to contact Dan Dow or his family.

In order to secure a shorter prison sentence, Platek agreed to plead guilty to one of four charges of making terrorist threats. Platek pleaded guilty to sending a threat across state lines to take the life of Dan Dow, his family and other schoolchildren in San Luis Obispo County.

The threats were reported over winter break. Federal agents placed Platek in custody before students returned.

At the sentencing hearing, Platek admitted he had sent messages across state lines that threatened to injure Dan Dow, his family and schoolchildren. Both Dan and Wendy Dow addressed the court, repeating past statements.

Dan Dow said that in his 21 years as a prosecutor, he has never been the victim of a crime.

“This horrific experience really highlights for me the great impact of our criminal and victim justice system on each and every victim,” Dan Dow said. “My wife and my children did not sign up to be a prosecutor and they should never have been the target of Mr. Platek’s anger and threats simply because of my chosen profession.

“We couldn’t go anywhere, even our church, without a law enforcement personal protection detail with us,” Dan Dow added. “We had to look over our shoulders everywhere we went during Christmas season of 2024 because David Platek’s phone went off grid and we believed he could show up at any time to carry out the threats he had made to kill our family.”

Wendy Dow said the punishment will “not be enough.”

“The only sentence that would suffice in my estimation is one that would help this man realize that his misfortune and his time engaged with the justice system are the consequences of his own poor choices,” Wendy Dow said. “I would like to challenge David to recognize that this is a season that has been tainted by his own poor choices to plot harm to others. Please use the gifts and skills you have been blessed with to do good things for others, to help people. I have prayed for you, I will continue to pray for you and I will ask others to join me in this.”

On Jan. 2, 2025, FBI agents disrupted David Platek’s plan to kill Dow and then explode a bomb at Templeton High School with the goal of murdering 400 people in an attempt to extract retribution over his 2019 arrest for allegedly impersonating a local activist.

David Platek

In 2019, SLO County prosecutors charged Platek with felony identity theft tied to his work as a political consultant. Platek provided information technology services to former Supervisor Adam Hill and several other candidates for local offices.

Local activist Kevin Rice regularly criticized Hill and his allies in the comment section of the SLO Tribune.

In 2018, Platek created a Facebook page in which he pretended to be Rice and then made a comment under a Tribune article about a convicted sex offender, saying that he (as Rice) had also had sex with children, and it was not all that uncommon.

Shortly afterwards, Aaron Ochs, a local troll known for spreading misinformation on behalf of Hill, wrote on his own Facebook page that Rice admitted to being a sex offender.

The SLO County District Attorney’s Office mounted an investigation that uncovered Platek’s role in attacking Hill’s critics. Prosecutors then filed two counts of felony identity theft and one related misdemeanor charge against Platek.

Hill committed suicide in 2020 after FBI agents raided his county office.

On Oct. 8, 2019, Platek’s first preliminary hearing was scheduled. Platek asked for a continence.

Over a period of more than three years, 46 preliminary hearings were continued on Platek’s request, canceled because of the court clerk during the COVID-19 pandemic, or vacated.

At Platek’s preliminary hearing on Oct. 13, 2022, the court ruled the case would proceed to trial under misdemeanor charges. After four years, the prosecuting attorney agreed to have the case dismissed.

Explaining why he wanted to kill Dan Dow, his family and schoolchildren – Platek said that the publicity surrounding his arrest ruined his professional career.

“Everything I’m told says killing kids is the most pain I can inflict, and I have the right to fight back against the people who did this to me. A primal right,” Platek wrote. “Bullets are cheap and children are plentiful. SLO wants to destroy my life, I’ll blow up one of their schools.”

From Dec. 7, 2024 through Dec. 16, 2024, Platek sent dozens of texts to an acquaintance outlining his plans for revenge, while also sending threats via social media to Dan Dow.

Platek planned to make a bomb from explosives and fertilizer, rent a van and drive from his home in Missouri to SLO County. After killing Dow, he would explode the bomb at the school the prosecutor’s children attended.

Federal agents arrested Platek on Jan. 2, 2025 in Missouri.

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