Serial rapist unlikely to re-offend upon release from prison, lawyer says
A convicted serial rapist who has been ordered released under strict supervision in Los Angeles County embraced intensive treatment for years while locked in a state mental hospital and is not a public safety risk, his attorney said Wednesday.
Christopher Evans Hubbart’s request for release was supported by his treating psychologist at Coalinga State Hospital and the hospital’s medical director, said Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender Jeff Dunn.
Dunn said his 62-year-old client will have to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, report his movements and submit to regular polygraph tests and other exams once he is conditionally freed. Hubbart, he said, would be part of a program that has supervised the release of more than 20 sexually violent predators without any of them committing new attacks.
“He’s agreeing to all of these things and has embraced them as part of his treatment,” Dunn said. “I do not believe that he’s going to re-offend.”
Dunn’s comments come amid growing alarm in Los Angeles County over a Santa Clara County judge’s decision in May to conditionally release Hubbart, who admitted sexually assaulting dozens of women in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Earlier this week, Los Angeles County supervisors expressed concern that Hubbart would pose a serious risk to public safety and Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey filed legal paperwork on Tuesday in an attempt to have Hubbart released in Santa Clara County instead of Los Angeles.
A Santa Clara County prosecutor said Hubbart will be released once appropriate housing is set up and approved by the judge, a process that could take six months to a year.
Hubbart is among more than 500 offenders in California who have been confined under a law that allows authorities to commit sexually violent predators to state hospitals if they are deemed to have mental disorders that make them likely to re-offend, even if — like Hubbart — they have already served their entire prison sentences. He was one of the first to be committed when the law took effect in 1996.
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Twitter: @jackfleonard
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