California IN BRIEF : ALTURAS : Judge Assigned in Rapist Parole Case

A judge from outside Modoc County was assigned Friday to hear the county’s lawsuit aimed at barring parole of serial rapist Melvin Carter in the area. Modoc County Superior Court Judge Guy Martin Young denied the state’s attempt to have the case moved out of Modoc County but ordered assignment of another judge to hear the lawsuit, court officials said. Carter was paroled in Modoc County last month after serving a sentence for 23 crimes, including rape, assault and burglary. He has confessed to about 100 rapes to law officers. Modoc County Dist. Atty. Ruth Sorensen, who filed the suit to bar parole of Carter in the county, said the state Judicial Council selected a retired Siskiyou County judge, James E. Kleaver, to hear the case. “That way we won’t have to take a traveling road show someplace,” Sorensen said. Denise Davis, of the state attorney general’s office, said state law provides for a neutral judge to be assigned under these circumstances.