Repeat Molester Jailed Upon Parole : Crime: Buena Park man with long history of child sex abuse fails psychiatric exam immediately after release. He allegedly boasted of violating more than 150 children.

A Buena Park man with a long history of convictions for child molestation was released on parole early Tuesday, then immediately imprisoned again after he failed a psychiatric evaluation.

Robert Keith Donelson, 48, who was sentenced in 1988 to 11 years in jail for sexually abusing a 4-year-old boy, has boasted to other prison inmates of molesting more than 150 children, said California Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Gengler.

Donelson was scheduled for release in Orange County on Tuesday, but a state psychiatrist who examined him immediately after his release “felt that Donelson was not suitable to be returned to his community and should go back to prison for further psychiatric evaluation,” said Tip Kindel, assistant director for the Department of Corrections.

Based on the psychiatrist’s examination, Donelson “suffers from a mental disorder that requires further institutional treatment not available in the community,” according to a statement issued by the Department of Corrections. The law allows the state to send such a parolee back to prison if he is deemed a threat to the community, Kindel said.

Donelson, who had spent the past six years in the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, was sent to the state Institution for Men in Chino. A hearing will be conducted by the Corrections Department’s Parole Hearing Division within 30 days to determine whether Donelson should have his parole revoked and be returned to prison, Kindel said.

Kindel said earlier news reports that Donelson would be released in Anaheim on Tuesday were “erroneous.” He said the original plan called for Donelson’s release in another Orange County city, which he declined to name.

He said that the Police Department in that community had been informed in advance and Donelson would have been under parole supervision. Donelson would have worn an electronic monitoring device, been subject to a curfew, undergone therapy and been prohibited from contact with anyone younger than 18 without written permission from a parole officer.

Anaheim city officials, who were alarmed by Tuesday’s news reports, said they were relieved to hear that Donelson remained in custody.

“Fortunately, the state is following its own procedures and is being extra cautious about releasing this person,” said Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly. “Clearly, (his release) would not have been of any benefit to the community based on his past record. In this case, at least as of today, it appears that the system is working.”

Donelson, who has been convicted of child molestation charges four times since 1966, was on parole in 1988 after serving six years of an 11-year, eight-month sentence for child molestation and oral copulation with children when he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a Buena Park boy.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Margaret Anderson sentenced Donelson to 11 years in prison. At the time, Gengler said, Donelson was in custody for violating his parole.

Gengler said Donelson seems a prime candidate for the “three strikes” law recently passed by the state Legislature that makes anyone convicted of three serious or violent felonies eligible for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Not only has Donelson indicated that “he . . . will molest again” if set free, said Gengler, but he has “stated or boasted he molested more than 150 children over the years, and as far as I know, he was not apologizing for (his deeds).”

Gengler said that if Donelson’s parole is revoked, “we’ll only be able to keep him one more year. That’s the amount of time we can keep him (according to the law). We have no option but to release him when his term is up.”