Rapist Who Served Sentence Kept in Custody

A former Santa Paula resident imprisoned since 1973 for a string of violent crimes has become the first Ventura County criminal to be kept behind bars after serving his sentence under a new sexual predator law.

Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell ruled Thursday(cq) that prosecutors had presented enough evidence to hold Steven Herrera, 50, until a jury decides at a trial May 16 whether he is likely to commit more sexually violent crimes if released.

A state law effective Jan. 1 allows authorities to keep convicts imprisoned for forcible sex crimes in custody for two years beyond their sentences if doctors determine they have a propensity toward similar acts.

“This was a very serious case,” said Lela Dobroth, a chief deputy district attorney.

Herrera was convicted in 1971 of numerous counts of sexual assault, burglary and robbery, Dobroth said. She would not elaborate except to say that the rapes were of adults but not elderly women.

So far Herrera is unique in Ventura County. Dobroth said she knows of no other sexually violent convict from this jurisdiction who scheduled release may be delayed.

The new law requires that four state Department of Mental Health doctors examine all convicts found guilty of crimes such as rape and child molestation in the six months before they are scheduled for release. Herrera, who was recently transferred to the County Jail, was set for release March 29.

The doctors found he was likely to rape again. And Ventura County prosecutors decided the case was strong enough to petition the court for a trial.

After his 1971 conviction, Herrera escaped from the Oxnard City Jail and fled to Virginia, where he was convicted of a series of armed robberies and attempted murder, according to prosecutors.

Herrera served 10 years under a 50-year sentence in Virginia before being paroled and transferred back to California, where he has served out a 12-years-to-life sentence.

If the jury finds Herrera is still a threat, he would probably be confined at a high-security state mental hospital in Atascadero in San Luis Obispo County or a similar facility in San Bernardino County.

The sexual-predator law was motivated by public uproar over the release of rapists and child molesters who had served their sentences and could not be confined any longer.

But civil libertarians and defense attorneys are challenging the law, contending that it violates constitutional guarantees against being punished twice for the same crime. They also argue that the definition of mental illness has been altered to justify the continued confinement.

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge upheld the constitutionality of the law in February in the case of a serial rapist who had served his prison sentence.