Wilson Administration Will Not Move Paroled Rapist : Prisons: Officials say Melvin Carter will be under such tight supervision that he will be unable to harm anyone. Modoc County prosecutor vows a new legal battle.

Despite an uproar from Modoc County residents and a plea from a woman who says she was one of serial rapist Melvin Carter’s victims, the Pete Wilson Administration said Friday that it will not move the repeat sex offender from the remote northeast California prison camp where he is on parole.

Corrections Department Director James Gomez said he is confident that Carter will be under such strict supervision that he will be unable to harm anyone in Modoc County, where he is to remain on parole for the next three years.

Gomez, in a statement released Friday afternoon, said he was unable to verify the assertion of a woman living in Modoc County who says Carter raped her 16 years ago in Hayward.

Under California law, a victim or witnesses to a violent crime that has been proved in court may ask that a parolee not be placed within 35 miles of their homes, Gomez said. But this victim, he said, never reported the rape to the police.

“Therefore, we were unable to verify the link between her and Melvin Carter, which would have triggered the 35-mile rule,” Gomez said. “This does not mean one does not exist, just that there is no police report or law enforcement investigation.”

The state could have moved Carter even without verification of the woman’s story, officials said.

Gomez also rejected the county’s contention that placing a violent felon such as Carter at the minimum-security Devil’s Garden conservation camp violates the terms of the state’s permit with the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the land.

Although the permit contains no such assurance, state officials have acknowledged that they promised that no violent inmates would be sent to the camp. But the state contends that Carter, because he is on parole, is not an inmate at the camp.

Gomez said Carter agreed in writing this week to an additional condition of his parole that will prevent him from going anywhere outside the camp limits without being escorted by a prison guard.

A Wilson spokeswoman said the governor was informed of the decision as it was being announced but played no role in the deliberations.

“That’s the job of his Corrections Department,” said Leslie Goodman, the governor’s communications director.

Modoc officials, who have charged that their county was selected as Carter’s location because it is home to only a politically insignificant handful of registered voters, reacted angrily to the decision.

“We wonder how they could review these issues and come up with that result,” said Mike Maxwell, the county administrator. “We don’t believe they’ve given either one of them due consideration.”

A spokeswoman for Modoc County Dist. Atty. Ruth Sorensen, who has led the legal battle to rid the county of Carter, said the prosecutor expected to be back in court Monday morning fighting the decision.

Carter, 49, was convicted in 1982 on 23 counts of rape, assault and burglary and confessed to raping dozens of women in an 11-year rampage through the Bay Area. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and was released after serving half that time because of credits he earned for good behavior and for working while in custody.

Carter’s release became an issue in Wilson’s reelection campaign when the leading Democratic contender, Treasurer Kathleen Brown, charged that Wilson’s Administration had bungled an opportunity to keep the notorious parolee behind bars for two more years.

Wilson, however, presented documents to rebut Brown’s charge and, supported by local prosecutors, said nothing more could have been done to prevent Carter’s release.

But even as the furor died down, Wilson’s predicament continued.

Responding to protests by residents of Hayward, where Carter was originally to be paroled, Wilson instructed the Department of Corrections to put the rapist “in the wilderness somewhere.”

That turned out to be Modoc County, where Carter was spirited into the prison camp March 17 in the trunk of a car. Since then he has been living in a small bungalow, reportedly reading a novel a day and watching television.