Portland man pleads guilty to harassing relative of Colorado theater shooting victim

A 45-year-old Portland area man Wednesday admitted to repeatedly phoning and harassing one relative of last summer’s Colorado movie theater shooting, even though the relative pleaded with the man to stop.

Kevin Michael Purfield contacted at least a dozen family members of shooting victims and declared that the victims weren’t really dead, investigators say.

When family members didn’t believe him, Purfield threatened them harm, investigators say.

Purfield is scheduled to be sentenced Friday to what likely will be a year of mental-health court, where he will have to check in weekly with a specialist who will help him with any needs, such as attending doctor’s appointments, taking medications and maintaining a place to live. Purfield also will be ordered not to phone, email, text or otherwise have any contact with the families of the 12 who died or the 58 who were injured during the July 2012 screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.”

“We just want to stop the behavior and get him help,” said Kirsten Snowden, the deputy district attorney who heads Multnomah County’s misdemeanor trial unit.

Purfield had been scheduled to go to trial Wednesday, nearly two months after Portland police arrested him under suspicion of repeatedly harassing victims’ families, according to police in Aurora, Colo.

He pleaded guilty in Multnomah County Circuit Court Wednesday to one count each of misdemeanor stalking and telephonic harassment. He is expected to be released from

Multnomah County jail Wednesday, after having spent the last two months there.

According to a probable cause affidavit, the brother of a 24-year-old woman who died in the Colorado shootings said he pleaded with Purfield to “Please stop contacting me, and please seek help.”

But Purfield continued to contact him, and the man again told Purfield to “Please stop the incessant harassment.” Purfield left five more voicemail messages, which the man passed along to police, according to the affidavit.

After Portland police arrested Purfield

near Northeast 102nd Avenue and Halsey Street

, Purfield told a detective he wished the detective would get cancer and die, according to the affidavit.

Before his arrest, Purfield admitted in his blog that he’d contacted family members of at least 11 of the 12 deceased victims to tell them their loved ones weren’t dead.

Purfield believed their bodies were never recovered, and they were missing.

He also posted that he believed the same about the victims of last year’s Newtown, Conn., shooting, and that the FBI was responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

-- Aimee Green