West Covina Officials Will Try to Force Molester to Leave

West Covina officials said Friday that they will go to Sacramento next week to ask that a convicted child molester be removed from their city.

Mayor Mike Touhey said he and other officials will ask the attorney general and corrections officials to remove Steven Conklin, 39. He is living with his mother and stepfather after serving nine years in Lancaster state prison for molesting a 6-year-old girl in 1993, authorities said. He was convicted of molestation and attempted murder.

He was released in September and lived briefly in West Covina before parole officials moved him because they feared that angry residents might hurt him, said Jerome Marsh, an official for the Department of Corrections’ Parole and Community Services Division. Conklin was transferred to a Los Angeles hotel but violated the conditions of his parole and was sent back to prison for two months, Marsh said. On Jan. 22, he returned to West Covina, authorities said.

The West Covina mayor said Department of Corrections officials violated their policies by allowing Conklin to live within 35 miles of the victim and by failing to notify the victim of a parole hearing before his release.

Marsh said West Covina officials have incited residents with incorrect information.

“This parolee was sentenced under the determinate sentence law. When his time is up, he must be released. There’s no parole hearing required before his release,” Marsh said.