Molester’s Neighbors Protest Outside Placentia Apartment Complex

Saying that their children are in danger, neighbors of Sidney Landau protested in front of their apartment complex Saturday in an effort to rally against the twice-convicted child molester.

As they waved placards displaying Landau’s picture that read “Sidney Landau is a monster” and “Please leave Placentia,” the neighbors received support throughout the morning and afternoon from passing motorists honking their horns.

“Once you have been convicted of any sex offense, you should never be free again,” said Constance Aceves, who drove up to the East Yorba Linda Boulevard complex to offer her support. “What he did is child abuse in the worst form.”

Landau, 57, is the first in Southern California to be identified under Megan’s Law, which gives law enforcement officials discretion to notify residents when a convicted child molester is in their midst.

Landau has been charged in three child molestation cases and convicted twice. He served two years in prison after a 1982 conviction for molesting a 10-year-old Anaheim boy and served eight years in prison after a 1988 conviction for molesting an 8-year-old Anaheim boy. In 1987, he was charged with performing a lewd act on a youth, but the charge was dismissed.

Landau was not at his apartment Saturday to see protesters, including about a dozen of his neighbors and their children.

He recently was served with an eviction notice because of the controversy, and a state parole official said Landau soon will be moving to a new home. That location is unknown and it will be up to local law enforcement to notify residents of his whereabouts.

Landau’s attorney said his client only wants to be left alone, but protesters vow to continue until Landau leaves the city.

One of the protesters, Jeff McClard, who lives with his three children in Landau’s apartment complex, said that several years ago he coincidentally moved into an Anaheim house Landau had lived in before going to prison.

“All his stuff was still there,” McClard recalled. “He had video games, a bunch of unwrapped toys, a library filled with children’s books. . . . It was disgusting and it’s kind of freaky that he’s living here now.”