2-21-2010 California:
DESERT CENTER - The State of California is paying more than $126,000 this year to move a house in the middle of the empty desert, 55 miles from the nearest city, for a sexually violent predator who has run out of prison sentences.
Steven Joseph Willett, 57, was freed from prison, and then a mental hospital, with a record of four felony sex crimes, including rape, attempted rape and lewd and lascivious acts with a 13-year-old child, the Desert Sun reported today.
Willett was ordered to be released in September 2008. The state moved him into a brand new $34,000 mobile home that it hauled out to a lot off state Route 177, near Desert Center, a sunbaked hamlet of 300 people some 200 miles east of Los Angeles.
"They dumped him in the desert," expressed Cheryl Magsam, a waitress at the small cafe off Highway 177, the lightly-travelled back country road between Indio and Lake Havasu. "We have girls that work the night shift alone."
Willet is not allowed to have Internet service, and is occasionally watched by private security guards who are looking for people who may want to burn the house down because of its occupant, the Desert Sun reported.
Taxpayers paid $44,000 last year for the guards, who also drive Willett to and from treatment sessions in western Riverside County, the Desert Sun reported. Land rental and food for Willett is another $2,000 a month, according to the newspaper.
Willet was released under the "Sexually Violent Predator Act," which ensures those who have served their prison term but may still pose a threat to society remain closely guarded. The state is on the hook for Willett's living expenses until he gets a job, officials said. ..Source.. Valley News
February 21, 2010
State is paying $126K this year to move sexually violent predator to desert
February 27, 2009
CA- Judge vows arrest for leaks, threats in molester Lamb housing placement
The public and all of criminal justice advocated for civil commitment schemes, well here is a graduate of the program and he deserves an opportunity to prove himself. He will be monitored during such proving period. SO to those who asked for civil commitment you have to accept all of its provisions, release is one of them.
2-27-2009 California:
Will house child molester without public comment
Threatening arrest for anyone who violates harassment laws or a gag order in the case, an angry judge said Thursday he will place sexually violent predator James Lamb into housing in Monterey County without a public comment period, possibly next month.
Judge Richard Curtis said statutory requirements for public notification had long ago been met by the publicity in the case. He said authorities are looking at a new property for the repeat child molester and may be approved when he next hears the case March 17.
Curtis said he was "quite disturbed" at the threatening and harassing phone calls that prompted a couple to withdraw their offer of a Prunedale property for Lamb's placement earlier this month.
He said he is convinced that someone involved in the case violated the gag order, which he renewed Thursday. Curtis did not say why he believed there had been a violation, but promised if he determines who it was or learns of a future violation by any public employee, official or witness in the case, he will find them in contempt of court.
He appeared to extend the threat to the public, pointing out that it is against the law to threaten or harass someone. He said the owners of the Avery Lane property in Prunedale received 30 to 40 phone calls in a "very short period of time," some of them threatening.
"This is the second time landowners have been intimidated, threatened or harassed by members of the public," Curtis said, referring to an earlier offer in Bradley that was withdrawn. "It's totally inappropriate and I'm upset by that."
The judge said the public is aware that he is required by law to place Lamb in Monterey County, his official county of residence. The next time an appropriate property is identified, he said, there would be no 30-day public comment period.
1,500 residences reviewed
Curtis and the Department of Mental Health have been looking for housing for Lamb since July 2007, when the judge ordered him into the conditional release phase of the state's Sexually Violent Predator Program.
More than 1,500 residences have been reviewed, most rejected by landlords or because they didn't meet restrictions in Jessica's Law, which prohibits offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park.
Lamb, 51, a former Spreckels resident, was committed to the program in 1998 after being convicted of molesting three children.
According to testimony by therapists who treated him at Atascadero State Hospital, he has admitted more than 70 molestations involving dozens of children.
Since his admission to the program in 1998, he has completed the four phases of inpatient treatment and been voluntarily castrated at his own expense. In the conditional release program, he would continue to receive treatment and live under strict rules that include round-the-clock monitoring by a GPS ankle bracelet and a prohibition against driving for at least one year.
Community outrage
Both efforts to place Lamb in the community have been met with outrage by neighboring residents, as well as public officials. Supervisor Lou Calcagno this month said Lamb was not welcome anywhere in his district and could face vigilantism if he were seen there. Sheriff Mike Kanalakis has said he does not approve of Lamb's placement anywhere in the county.
Curtis did not name names on Thursday, but warned if any public official, including members of the Board of Supervisors or the sheriff's department, made out-of-court comments about the case, he would find them in contempt.
Senators against release
Central Coast legislators this month offered little guidance to Curtis. State Senators Jeff Denham and Abel Maldonado said they would prefer Lamb be permanently incarcerated.
"It is unfortunate that these animals ever get out of prison," Denham said. "If I had my way, they would never get out."
Both said they had tried unsuccessfully to pass legislation that would keep predators behind bars or release them to isolated facilities where they could be monitored. Maldonado congratulated Prunedale residents for blocking Lamb's placement there.
"I'm not encouraging anyone to break the law, but I am encouraging them to be vocal, use my office, use their political representatives office to put pressure to keep that person from getting out," he said. "I don't want James Lamb in my neighborhood and I don't want him in any neighborhood."
Homelessness most risky
Assembly members Anna Caballero and Bill Monning said Curtis and the community are faced with the difficult challenge of protecting the community and Lamb's rights at the same time.
Monning said local leaders and their constituents should seize the opportunity to develop acceptable housing options, such as an isolated re-entry facility where sex offenders could be monitored. The worst option, he said, is for the court to be forced to release Lamb as a transient.
"If we don't know where these people are paroled to, we create a greater risk for our communities," he said.
Caballero agreed.
"Voters have stated very clearly where they don't want sex offenders to live, but not where they do think they should live, once they are released from prison," she said. "Until we come to a collective, statewide agreement on where these offenders can live, the predictable outcome is homelessness — the most risky location of all." ..News Source.. by Virginia Hennessey
June 21, 2008
CA- Judge rules child molesters can share house
6-21-2008 California:
SAN DIEGO – Two convicted child molesters classified as “sexually violent predators” can share a house under 24-hour supervision in the rural East County community of Jacumba, a judge ruled Friday.
David Mark Chambless, 47, and Gary Gene Snavely, 45, will be placed in a single-story home at 45612 Old Highway 80 on or before July 10, the judge ordered.
Several Jacumba residents who attended the public hearing said they were outraged by the decision.
“It's disgusting,” Lynn Hitchcock said.
San Diego Superior Court Judge David M. Gill ruled in December that the men wouldn't be a danger to the public if properly supervised. Friday, he said it was “reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances” to allow Chambless and Snavely to live in the rural community where they would receive outpatient mental treatment.
Chambless and Snavely will be monitored through global positioning devices and prohibited from entering the center of Jacumba, said Jayne Shale, executive director of Liberty Health Care – the firm responsible for providing treatment and supervision for the two men.
“We are aware that we need to keep the safety of the community forefront in our minds,” Shale said.
Hitchcock and others said they were worried that Chambless and Snavely would have easy access to children who walk along Old Highway 80.
The house is within two miles of Jacumba Elementary School, the Jacumba Community Park and the community library. It also is within 500 yards of the Mexican border.
Lorrie Ostrander said she feared that allowing Chambless and Snavely to live in Jacumba would lead to other sex offenders being placed in her community.
“They're walking time bombs,” Ostrander said outside the courtroom. “All it takes is something to set them off.”
Chambless was convicted in 1990 of molesting two girls, ages 7 and 9, and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Snavely was convicted in 1987 of molesting two girls, ages 8 and 9, in Orange County and sentenced to three years in prison. He was convicted in 1996 in San Diego County of failing to register as a sex offender.
Both men were initially sent to Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County after serving their prison terms. They were later transferred to Coalinga State Hospital in Fresno County.
State law requires sexually violent predators to return to the county where they committed their crimes after a lengthy treatment program at a state hospital. A predator is defined as someone convicted of a violent sex crime who has been diagnosed with a mental disorder.
“These two men have earned the right to be released into the community,” Deputy Public Defender Marian Gaston told the judge.
Deputy District Attorney Phyllis Shess said she shared the residents' concerns.
“We fought tooth and nail trying to keep them from being released,” Shess said. “We think they should stay in the hospital getting treatment.” ..News Source.. by Ray Huard
