Singleton Hacked Victim’s Arms : Officials to Fight Parole of Rapist to San Diego

San Diego city and county officials on Monday launched a campaign to keep convicted rapist Lawrence Singleton from being paroled to San Diego after several Northern California counties barred the 59-year-old felon from their area.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor, in a hastily called executive session of the City Council, asked for and received “carte blanche” authority for City Atty. John Witt to act to prevent state Department of Corrections officials from “forcing this individual down the throat of San Diego.”

Since his parole 10 days ago, Singleton has been kept under cover and under guard in Northern California motels until the courts decide where he will be sent.

Court Suggests San Diego

San Diego was suggested as a potential parole site by the state Court of Appeal last week because Singleton’s trial was moved here in 1979, based on a ruling of adverse pretrial publicity in Stanislaus County, where the 1979 crime took place.

At the San Diego trial, Singleton was convicted of raping a 15-year-old hitch-hiker, then mutilating her by chopping off her hands at the forearm and leaving her for dead. She survived and testified against Singleton, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Corrections officials have attempted to place the parolee in Florida and in several Northern California cities but have been barred by refusals and by court orders.

San Diego County was named in a state Court of Appeal case in San Francisco as a potential location for Singleton’s parole as the “county of commitment,” which, under state code, is the prescribed site for parole.

Startled San Diego city lawyers and state attorney general’s office lawyers responded Monday by saying that to parole a felon to the site of a change-of-venue trial--and not at the site of the crime--would prompt counties to refuse change-of-venue requests for defendants charged with heinous crimes because of the fear of being forced later to accept the felon as a parolee.

Reluctance on Cases

Deputy County Counsel Daniel Wallace and Deputy Atty. Gen. Morris Lenk argued in briefs to the San Francisco appellate court that Stanislaus County, the site where the crime was committed, or Contra Costa County, Singleton’s legal residence, should accept the parolee, not San Diego County.

To place Singleton here, Lenk argued, “would make counties reluctant to accept change-of-venue cases, which are usually the most notorious ones, for fear of them also receiving the defendant as a parolee.”

An appellate court ruling on the case is expected within a week, attorneys said.

Witt said that the city would demand a 24-hour warning from the Department of Corrections before Singleton is sent to San Diego. State Corrections Department spokesman Bob Gore said that such notice is routinely given.

Gore said that Corrections Department officials did not have San Diego under consideration as a parole site for Singleton, but he added that he could not rule out the county as a possible site.