Target of Megan’s Law Moves, Causing Stir

Twice-convicted child molester Sid Landau has moved out of the Placentia house where he had lived since his release from prison in November, leaving behind a slew of relieved neighbors but launching a spate of worried calls from other residents to police.

“People are calling me today and wanting to know where he moved and asking is he near them,” Det. Corinne Loomis said Thursday. “But I remind them that our city is five miles square, so near is relative. Yes, he’s near and so are the other 65 registered sex offenders who live here.”

Landau, 57, is still in the Gehrig Avenue area, Loomis said, and police plan to pass out fliers Saturday notifying his new neighbors of his presence.

Landau, who has two convictions for molesting boys under 14, was the subject of publicity when he became the first sex offender to trigger the full extent of California’s Megan’s Law. The law permits police to notify residents when a convicted sex offender moves into their neighborhood.

Loomis said police want to make sure people know that Landau has moved elsewhere.

“It is important for us to make sure the message is out that anybody who has ideas about a retaliatory strike against that house or the people in it needs to be aware Mr. Landau isn’t there any more,” Loomis said.

Friends who let Landau live at their Gehrig Avenue home endured relentless threats from the public--including one to firebomb their home. Another caller threatened to kill the 85-year-old mother of one of Landau’s friends, according to Loomis.

Police attempted to find the harassers, installing a phone tap on the Gehrig Avenue telephone line that traced the source of the harassing calls to a pay telephone. They were preparing to stake out that phone when Landau erased the necessity by moving.

“When [Landau’s friends] called and notified us they were receiving these threats, we acted immediately,” Loomis said. “Usually it takes seven days for a phone trap to be installed on a person’s residence, but we had one up in less than 24 hours.

“We have as much of an obligation to protect Sid Landau and the residents of that house as we do to protect the community from him,” Loomis said.

But Placentia’s intention of alerting Landau’s new neighbors to his presence will keep the public fearful and angry at a man who is trying to become inconspicuous and start a new life, said his attorney, T. Matthew Phillips.

“He should be left alone, period,” Phillips said. “According to the judge, my client has paid his dues. According to the California Legislature, my client has paid his dues. According to state mental health experts, my client is ready to reenter society.

“By what authority does the city of Placentia have the right to mete out punishment in addition to punishment he’s already received?” Phillips asked.

Also, that Placentia has not alerted residents to the whereabouts of other convicted sex offenders living there means Landau is being unfairly singled out, Phillips said.

“Why has the city not fliered the other [sex offenders] in Placentia? Why have the surrounding cities not fliered any sex offenders, and why has no other municipality in the state of California sent out fliers with the names and address of the other tens of thousands of sex offenders?”

Landau, Phillips said, has been through “hell.” “He gets death threats all the time.”

Despite the threats, for the most part residents in his old neighborhood seemed to gain an uneasy acceptance of Landau’s presence while he lived there, Loomis said.

“I think people kind of settled down and fell into the mind-set that we’d hoped they’d adopt: acceptance of the fact that he and others like him are in the community and to just be aware and protective.

“That’s what Megan’s Law is designed to do,” she said. “It’s not designed to whip people into a frenzy and have them run somebody out on a rail.”