Rothenberg Reported in Bay Area : Parole: An Alameda County supervisor says sources told him man who burned son in 1983 might be in Oakland.

An elected official in Northern California said Saturday he has been told by state law enforcement sources that Charles David Rothenberg, released last week from prison almost seven years after setting his son afire, was paroled somewhere in the east San Francisco Bay Area.

Alameda County Supervisor Don Perata refused Saturday to identify his sources, who he said spoke to him on condition of anonymity. But Perata said in a Times interview that Rothenberg “is either on his way or has already arrived” in the Oakland area.

Perata conceded he has not talked with anyone from the state Department of Corrections, which oversees California’s prisons and is shepherding Rothenberg’s highly publicized parole.

“These were people who were in a position of knowing,” Perata said. “I’m convinced he’s here. I was convinced (by Friday) because of the inquiries I made locally. If my information is wrong, I want to know from the state.”

Thus, Perata said he would file a complaint with state Department of Corrections officials.

Tipton C. Kindel, a corrections department spokesman, would neither confirm nor deny the assertion. But he said that only the top law enforcement official--meaning a police chief, sheriff or constable--in the area where Rothenberg was paroled Wednesday morning had been briefed on his whereabouts. Politicians, supervisors or City Council members were not among those notified, he said.

“He (Perata) is not the first person to speculate on where he is,” Kindel said. “If he were positive, I think he would have said a little more than he did.”

Rothenberg, 49, burned his son beyond recognition in a Buena Park motel on March 3, 1983. He said his wife threatened to bar him from visiting his son, David, then 6, so he tried to kill him. “If I couldn’t have him, nobody could,” he said afterward.

He was sentenced to 13 years, the maximum allowed under state determinant sentencing laws that have since been toughened. If he were sentenced today, Rothenberg could have been sent to prison for life. Because state law allows prisoners one day off for each day they work or go to school behind bars, Rothenberg’s sentence was effectively cut in half. He did clerical and grounds keeping work before he was released from prison.