State Renews Efforts to Release Singleton Outside of California

State corrections officials have renewed efforts to place paroled rapist Lawrence Singleton in another state amid angry opposition from numerous California cities, a spokesman said Friday.

Department of Corrections spokesman Robert Gore also said that Singleton, who was convicted of raping a teen-age girl and cutting off her forearms, may be permanently paroled to an urban area if officials succeed in finding a home for him in California, because he would be “more likely to blend in.”

Extensive publicity has hampered the state’s efforts to find either a temporary or a permanent parole site for Singleton, who was released last Saturday from the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo. His whereabouts have not been made public by state or local authorities since the three parole officers who are guarding him checked him out of a Napa motel on Thursday.

Search for Location

Gore said it is expected to be two to three weeks before a permanent location is found for the 59-year-old ex-convict. Despite legal action taken by three San Francisco Bay area counties seeking to block Singleton’s release there, the state corrections spokesman said, “Everything is still going according to plan.”

Last week, when officials in Florida and Nevada refused to take Singleton, Gore said it was unlikely that Singleton would be placed outside California and that Contra Costa County was the preferred site.

But he said Friday, “There’s no particular state in mind, but an out-of-state placement (effort) is continuing.”

Initial plans to release Singleton to Antioch in Contra Costa County, where corrections officials say the former merchant seaman last lived, were scrapped following a massive public protest. Court orders in that county and in San Francisco have barred Singleton’s release there. San Mateo County supervisors have voted to seek a similar court order and the Napa City Council was to have held a closed meeting Friday to discuss possible legal action.

San Diego Suggested

The state’s 1st District Court of Appeal sent a letter Thursday to parties in the case inviting arguments on whether Singleton should be placed in San Diego County, where he was convicted. The suggestion met with immediate opposition.

“We don’t need him here,” said San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender. “He’d have a hard time adjusting here. He’d be better off going to a community where no one knew him.”

Said San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller: “It’s my guess that everyone would be opposed to him anywhere.”

The Department of Corrections expected the controversy over Singleton’s parole, Gore said, and continues to move Singleton to new temporary lodgings “every couple of days.”

The agency spokesman described Singleton as “scared and very cooperative.”