Napa, San Mateo County Seek to Ban Singleton

Despite Gov. George Deukmejian’s call for restraint by local governments on the issue, officials in Napa and San Mateo County Thursday joined the growing list of those seeking to ban paroled rapist Lawrence Singleton from their communities.

The unprecedented protests by the Napa City Council and the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, plus court orders in Contra Costa County and San Francisco barring Singleton from parole there, prompted the Corrections Department to once again start looking beyond state lines for a home for Singleton.

Corrections spokesman Robert Gore said the search for a parole site for Singleton will continue for at least two to three weeks, and that out-of-state placement is possible. Singleton already has been rejected by Florida authorities for parole there.

The Napa City Council scheduled a special meeting today to consider legal remedies to keep Singleton out, after word spread that the convicted rapist spent the night in a hotel there Wednesday. He was watched round-the-clock by three parole officers and two Napa police officers, and was hustled out early Thursday morning.

Court Order Sought

In San Mateo County, supervisors voted unanimously to seek a court order barring Singleton--even though the Corrections Department maintains it has no specific plans to release him there.

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Harlan Veal rejected the county’s request for a temporary restraining order, but ordered the Department of Corrections to give the sheriff 24 hours notice if it plans to place Singleton in the county even for a short time.

The former merchant seaman was paroled last Saturday from the California Men’s Colony at San Luis Obispo, after serving eight years for raping a teen-age runaway in 1978 and chopping off her arms with an ax.