Convicted Rapist Declares Sanity, Rejects Treatment

Convicted rapist Ronald Steven Herrera told jurors Friday that he is not mentally ill and has refused psychological treatment to protest the state’s violent-sexual predator law that has kept him in custody.

“I feel I can function on a normal basis without” treatment, he said. t

Herrera, 53, formerly of Santa Paula, was one of the state’s first parolees committed under the 1995 Sexually Violent Predator Law, which allows authorities to hold sex offenders in custody for two-year stints at mental hospitals if they meet certain criteria.

Under the law, sex predators are defined as those criminals with mental health disorders and repeated sex crimes convictions who are likely to attack again.

In 1996, a Ventura County jury deemed Herrera a sexual predator in the county’s first such case. Now, the same issue is before a second jury in Judge James P. Cloninger’s courtroom.

For the last two days, jurors in Ventura County Superior Court have heard testimony from two treating physicians at Atascadero State Hospital, where Herrera has been confined.

Dr. Jill Nelson testified Wednesday that Herrera has repeatedly refused treatment, spat out medication and harassed hospital staff. She diagnosed Herrera with a variety of mental health disorders.

But when questioned about that diagnosis Friday by Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox, Herrera told the jury that he does not consider himself mentally ill.

Speaking slowly and with a slight drawl, Herrera acknowledged acting out against hospital staff and said he has been protesting what he termed his false imprisonment.

Herrera was convicted in December 1971 of raping a woman and her 15-year-old daughter during a Ventura home-invasion robbery three months earlier. A jury found he and a second suspect terrorized three families vacationing at a beach cottage.

Less than a week after he was found guilty, Herrera and three other inmates escaped from the old Oxnard jail. Herrera fled to Virginia, where he was later convicted of a series of armed robberies and attempted murder. He served 13 years of a 50-year sentence before returning to Ventura County.

In 1986, he was arrested on a traffic violation. When authorities realized he had never served time for the prior rape conviction, Herrera was sent to prison for eight years and eight months.

Herrera was scheduled for release in March 1996, but Ventura County authorities ordered him held under the then 3-month-old sexual predator act.