Molester Forced Out of Home Again

Convicted child molester Sidney Landau on Wednesday checked out of the Fullerton motel where he was staying, after the manager refused to accept his payment for the coming week, a state parole administrator said.

Landau’s departure from the motel leaves him without a home for the third time since November. That’s when he was released from prison and became the first target in Southern California of a law allowing local authorities to notify residents of sex offenders in their neighborhoods.

“The landlord of the motel would not accept his money to continue staying there. He was told to leave,” said Lynda Ward, a deputy regional parole administrator for the state Department of Corrections.

By evening Wednesday, state parole agents had not secured a place for Landau to stay the night. Ward said two parole agents would work into the night looking for another place for Landau to stay.

“They’re going to keep looking until they find something,” Ward said. “They’ll have to take whatever they can find that’s acceptable.”

Landau’s presence at the Lucky Motel on Commonwealth Avenue had been the subject of protests for days by residents in the west Fullerton neighborhood. The 57-year-old sex offender moved to Fullerton on April 4, after he was evicted from his second Placentia address.

“He couldn’t stay here. We had people outside all the time. We told him, ‘You have to go,’ ” said Suki Pang, a receptionist at the motel, which backs a quiet street.

Landau’s attorney said he was surprised Wednesday afternoon to hear his client was again turned out on the street. He blamed the ongoing controversy on “ignorance and intolerance” and accused parole officials of doing a poor job.

“There are no [state Department of Corrections] plans for Sid Landau,” attorney T. Matthew Phillips said. “No plans at all, and it’s shocking. They don’t know what to do with him.”

Phillips said Landau was not a full-time resident at the motel.

“He never spent a night there, it was all a front anyway,” Phillips said. “He’s been staying at other hotels or just wandering the streets of Fullerton all night. . . . And that spells trouble for the concerned mothers of Fullerton.”