Warrant Issued for Man Accused of Threatening Lakeville Restaurant Manager

A warrant has been issued for a Prior Lake man accused of threatening to kill a Lakeville restaurant manager because the man wouldn’t let him talk to his estranged wife on the phone in April.

Richard Anthony Sandlin, 44, is charged with a felony count of making terroristic threats, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Because authorities don’t know his whereabouts, a warrant for his arrest was issued Tuesday.

According to the complaint, Sandlin called the Lakeville restaurant on April 6, asking to speak to his estranged wife.

The manager told Lakeville police that when employees told Sandlin he couldn’t speak to his wife, he used “vulgar language” with them.

The manager said he picked up the phone to speak to Sandlin, who told him that he “knows who he is, what he can do, and that he will wait by his pickup truck tonight to kill him with a baseball bat after he gets off of work,” according to the complaint.

Police also spoke to Sandlin’s wife, who said she was in the process of divorcing Sandlin and that on April 3 she filed for a harassment restraining order against him. The order wasn’t served because Sandlin had moved from Prior Lake to his brother’s home in North Carolina, the woman told police.

Sandlin’s wife also said that Sandlin was calling and texting her daily in addition to trying to reach her by phone at Cracker Barrel.

A Lakeville police officer called Sandlin to tell him that he was investigating the restaurant manager’s complaint. Sandlin initially denied calling the restaurant or threatening anyone, but eventually admitted that he called Cracker Barrel on April 6 to speak to his wife, the complaint says.

Sandlin told the officer that an “unknown male” was rude to him and made him angry, according to the complaint.

“As the conversation continued, Sandlin became agitated and used vulgar language with the officer,” the complaint says.

After the officer told Sandlin he was going to end the conversation because of Sandlin’s behavior and hung up, Sandlin called the officer’s work cell phone multiple times, asking “inappropriate questions,” the complaint says.

“The officer advised Sandlin to stop calling [his] work cell phone,” the complaint says. “Sandlin left a message on the officer’s cell phone, advising that the officer is an uneducated moron.”

Sandlin was convicted last year in Scott County of misdemeanor domestic assault. Under the terms of a plea agreement, additional charges of making terroristic threats, interfering with a 911 call and an additional domestic assault charge were dropped in that case.