Officials Try to Calm Public Emotion Over Paroled Rapist

Contra Costa County officials, sobered by the mob that forced parolee Lawrence Singleton to flee the town of Rodeo under police protection, softened their rhetoric Tuesday in an effort to calm the public attitude toward the reviled rapist.

“The snowball is so big that nobody can handle it,” Contra Costa County Supervisor Tom Powers said, calling on state parole authorities to meet with local officials in an effort to find a home for Singleton.

Power’s conciliatory attitude Tuesday contrasted sharply with his words of 10 days ago, when parole authorities briefly placed Singleton in Powers’ supervisorial district. At that time, the supervisor told The Times that parole authorities “aren’t going to get any cooperation from me” and that he was “on a crusade” to block them from placing Singleton in the county.

Special Closed Session

While still angered that the Department of Corrections picked Contra Costa County as Singleton’s parole site, Powers and the rest of Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors huddled in a special closed session Tuesday in Martinez in an effort to solve the vexing problem. They concluded their two-hour meeting without making a public statement, but earlier in the day, Powers indicated that the board is prepared to work with the state to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, police in the Contra Costa County community of Concord disclosed that Department of Corrections officials had temporarily placed Singleton in that city. Concord Police Lt. Jim Jennings confirmed that Singleton was at a secret location under guard by four parole officers but no special police protection, pending permanent placement elsewhere. “They’re telling us (that Singleton will be in Concord) anywhere from two to three days max,” Jennings said.

Singleton has spent his first month of “freedom” being moved from one town to another by parole agents. He was released April 25 after serving eight years of a 14-year sentence for raping a 15-year-old girl and hacking off her forearms with an ax. Singleton won early parole under a program that reduced his sentence for working and taking classes in prison.

Singleton’s parole sparked outrage throughout the state, and local government officials from San Francisco to San Diego went to court or threatened to in an effort to keep Singleton out of their jurisdictions. Comments similar to Power’s remarks about “a crusade” were typical. Singleton was forced out of one city after another as his location was revealed.

Public outcry reached a crescendo Monday when Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputies evacuated Singleton, dressed in a bullet-proof vest, from an apartment in the rural Contra Costa community of Rodeo as an estimated 500 angry residents demonstrated outside the building.

Landlord Arline Baldridge rented the apartment after two state agents, posing as husband and wife, said they wanted the apartment for a father-in-law who recently was released from a hospital. Baldridge said she was particularly outraged because her daughter was raped and murdered in 1976. Some protesters carried homemade signs that said “Drop Dead” and “Get Out of Town, Bud.”

“Let’s have a lynching party for him,” one protester was quoted as saying.

“We see and hear things that are just short of a mob reaction and that is not what our community is all about,” Assistant Sheriff Warren Rupf said of the weekend scene outside Singleton’s $345-a-month apartment.

“I have seen people go absolutely off the board in what they’re doing and saying. There is a proper forum (for protest) and it is in the courts and legislative bodies,” he said.

Ten days ago, Rupf’s boss, Contra Costa County Sheriff Richard K. Rainey, publicly revealed that Singleton had been placed in El Cerrito despite Department of Corrections requests that the location be kept secret. Rainey explained his action by saying that the issue was of “utmost interest to the public and it is inappropriate for me to withhold that information.” Corrections officials moved Singleton after his location was disclosed by Rainey, Powers and other officials.

In Sacramento, meanwhile, the Assembly Public Safety Committee met to consider Singleton’s case, the state’s parole system and the question of whether steps could be taken to prevent the release of mentally disordered criminals.

Although a law passed in 1985 allows authorities to commit criminals to mental institutions after their scheduled release, Singleton was not kept in custody because he was diagnosed as not having a severe enough “character disorder,” said Steven Shon, a spokesman for the Department of Mental Health.

“What I don’t understand is why a man who hacks off the arms of a 15-year-old girl is not crazy,” responded Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego), chairman of the committee.

Last year, 32,000 criminals were released on parole in California, and 30,000 parolees were arrested for violations of their parole--including 4,500 who were involved in violent crimes, testified Edward Veit, a Department of Corrections assistant deputy director.

Dorsey Nunn, a convicted murderer who was paroled in 1981 after 10 years in prison, also testified, saying criminals released on parole need more support from the state, family or citizens groups if they are to avoid going back to prison.

Department of Corrections officials remained stymied in their attempts to find a permanent home for Singleton. Spokesman Robert Gore in Sacramento declared that it was “no longer productive to discuss” the case, and said officials continue to believe that Singleton should be placed in Contra Costa County, where he lived off and on before his crime.

Several academics say the political reaction, coupled with press coverage, fueled the public outcry. Law professors were particularly critical of local officials’ decisions to sue the state to block Singleton’s release.

Superior Court judges in Contra Costa County and San Francisco issued orders temporarily blocking Singleton’s placement in those communities. Their rulings were overturned by a state appeals court that decided the state can place parolees where it sees fit.

“They (local politicians) were posturing because they couldn’t possibly win,” said law professor Sanford Kadish of the University of California, Berkeley. “But what’s the City Council, the supervisor, the mayor going to say to their constituents: ‘We did what we could.’ ”

“I don’t know if we share in the blame,” Powers said in response. “I know we share in the outrage that the system would allow this to occur. Fear of the man, hatred of what he did, the feeling the legal system doesn’t work right--that’s what continues to push this.”

There have been protests about parolees before, among them assassin Dan White and one-time Death Row inmate and murderer Archie Fain. But “this one clearly transcends county lines,” said Assistant Atty. Gen. Steve White, echoing sentiments by scholars and other law enforcement officials.

“Once this starts, it tends to just feed on itself,” noted professor John Kaplan of Stanford University law school. “Politicians will do what newspapers will report. It’s safe. You don’t lose votes by denouncing Singleton.”

Singleton must remain on parole for a year, and then can go where he pleases. While on parole, he must remain indoors between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., submit to random searches and drug and alcohol tests and attend counseling.

His odyssey began in early April when word spread in Antioch that he would be released there. Local officials immediately demanded that he be sent elsewhere and sued to block his release there. State authorities, who were rebuffed in efforts to place him in Florida and Nevada, eventually settled Singleton in El Cerrito and then Richmond, both in Contra Costa County, before moving him to Rodeo.

Two and sometimes three parole agents have accompanied Singleton as he has been moved about the state. Singleton has paid for his hotel rooms and meals with money supplied by his family. The trek has cost the state $3,800 a day in hotel, restaurant and gasoline bills, and in overtime and administrative costs.

Dan Morain reported from San Francisco and Richard C. Paddock from Sacramento. Times staff writer Mark A. Stein in Martinez also contributed to this story.