SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Authorities announced Friday that a landlord in a sparsely populated portion of Los Angeles County has agreed to rent a home to a serial rapist, but the Los Angeles County district attorney and others vowed to fight the move.
Christopher Evans Hubbart has admitted to raping and assaulting about 40 women between 1971 and 1982. When his prison term ended in 1996, he was deemed a sexually violent predator and confined to a state mental hospital.
Hubbart has been declared fit to be released with an ankle bracelet to monitor his whereabouts. But like many other sexual violent predators given their freedom, authorities have faced stiff opposition in finding a home for Hubbart.
Officials scrapped a plan in February, for instance, to house Terry Stone, convicted of three charges of sexually assaulting children, in a San Diego County neighborhood earlier this year after neighbors objected. A new San Diego County address has been proposed for Stone.
An Antelope Valley landlord last year succumbed to mounting public pressure and pulled an offer to rent to Hubbart.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said she would fight the latest proposal, which would house Hubbart in a sparsely populated portion of Los Angeles County east of Palmdale.
“If Hubbart is housed in Los Angeles County, my office will work with law enforcement to make sure that he is closely monitored at all times and that all terms and conditions of his release are strictly enforced,” Lacey said.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Gilbert Brown set a hearing date for May 21 to review public comment.
Various California laws and opposition from neighbors and their elected officials make it difficult for authorities to find homes for sexually violent predators upon their release. They’re barred from living within 2,000 feet of a school or where children gather, making it almost impossible to house them in populated urban areas.
Santa Clara County prosecutor Vonda Tracey said Hubbart’s proposed home is least three miles away from the nearest school and park.
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