A man who was previously convicted of stalking two doctors at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center faces a new federal stalking charge in connection with the two victims and an additional three in Loma Linda, authorities said Friday.
Gueorgui Hristov Pantchev, 49, was arrested by FBI agents Friday and is expected to make his first appearance District Court in downtown Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
An unsealed criminal complaint details Pantchev’s conduct dating back to 2011 and alleges a longtime harassment campaign targeting the two female doctors at the hospital, as well as the three other victims who worked at the VA’s facility in Loma Linda.
He allegedly sent threatening communications to the West L.A. doctors and for that conduct was charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and convicted in 2014 of nine counts of stalking and witness intimidation.
After serving time in state prison, Pantchev was paroled in 2017 and was barred from the West L.A. facility, officials said.
He then began seeking medical services at the VA’s Loma Linda facility, where he allegedly “started stalking, harassing, and intimidating” three additional victims, officials said.
Despite the conditions of his parole prohibiting him from going to the West L.A. facility, Pantchev again sought care there last year and began sending intimidating communications to colleagues of the first two victims.
Official allege Pantchev sent “hundreds of lewd, sexually explicit, and false fliers bearing large pictures of Victim #1 and Victim #2 that Pantchev has distributed around West Los Angeles day after day,” according to an affidavit. “Some of these fliers include inflammatory, racist language that Pantchev falsely attributes to Victims #1 and #2 along with their contact information and requests the reader to ‘Get rid of them, PLEASE.’”
The complaint includes specific examples of what was sent to the victims, who all felt threatened.
Eventually VA police officials restricted Pantchev’s access to the two medical facilities, requiring him to have an escort when arriving for a scheduled appointment, officials said.
More than 40 police reports were made against Pantchev since 2018 that include “detailed instances of him being loud, disruptive, rude, and demanding” at the Loma Linda VA campus, officials said.
Pantchev again returned to the West L.A. campus last March, despite the conditions of his parole.
When his parole ended in September, he allegedly visited the facility three times, one of which resulted in his arrest on suspicion of trespassing and battery on a police officer for allegedly spitting in the officer’s face, officials said.
He apparently recently moved just two blocks from the West L.A. facility.
Pantchev faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison if convicted on the stalking charge.
The case is being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Anyone with additional information about Pantchev, or believe they may have been victimized by him, can call the FBI at 310-477-6565.
