L.A. County prosecutors seek to block local release of serial rapist
Los Angeles County prosecutors are seeking to stop a convicted serial rapist who has spent roughly two decades in state mental hospitals from being released in the county.
Asst. Dist. Atty. Joseph Esposito told the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that his office had flown a prosecutor to Santa Clara County to file legal paperwork to block Christopher Evans Hubbart’s release to Los Angeles County.
A Santa Clara County judge ruled in May that Hubbart, 62, could be conditionally freed under strict monitoring conditions to Los Angeles County, where Hubbart was born and raised.
“We believe that Hubbart remains a serious risk to public safety,” Esposito told county supervisors at their regular weekly meeting.
The district attorney’s legal paperwork wouldn’t seek to block him from being released somewhere else in the state.
Hubbart was first arrested on rape charges in Los Angeles in 1972 and has admitted to sexually assaulting 25 women in the area, according to a 2004 U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision. After his release in 1979, Hubbart moved to the Bay Area and raped an additional 15 women within two years, the court said. He was imprisoned again on rape charges and released on parole in 1990.
Shortly after his release, he attempted to grab a woman in Santa Clara County, a prosecutor there said. Hubbart was convicted of false imprisonment and returned to custody.
L.A. County supervisors expressed concerns on Tuesday about the possibility of Hubbart’s release to the area and applauded the district attorney’s attempt to block the move.
“Perhaps the judge should take him, if he wants him out so badly, and let him live in Santa Clara in his neighborhood,” Supervisor Mike Antonovich said.
Santa Clara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Vonda Tracey, who heads the office’s unit that handles cases involving sexually violent predators, said a judge found Hubbart appropriate for conditional release in May after hearing from experts familiar with his case who said they believed Hubbart was ready to leave Coalinga State Hospital.
Tracey said Hubbart would be released under strict supervision, including a regular escort at first and electronic monitoring. He will be subject to random searches, a curfew and restrictions on where he can go, and he will continue to undergo regular treatment, she said.
She said a private company, Liberty Healthcare, is seeking housing for Hubbart, a process that generally takes six months to a year. Tracey said she would be most concerned if Hubbart was released without him finding suitable housing.
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