Calif. Appeals Court Rejects DA's Bid To Stop Release Of Convicted Serial Rapist Into LA County
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court on Tuesday rejected a challenge to the release of a sexually violent predator to Los Angeles County.
LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said in a statement that the 6th District Court of Appeal's ruling on the release of Christopher Evans Hubbart, 62, was "very disappointing."
The writ filed earlier this month by District Attorney Jackie Lacey did not challenge the conditional release of Hubbart from a state hospital that was granted by a panel in May, only the location of his release.
Prosecutors say Hubbart was born and raised in LA County and considers it home. But the writ argued that Hubbart has no living relatives in LA County and that he primarily lived and committed his more recent crimes in Santa Clara County.
Hubbart remained at Coalinga State Hospital while officials searched for housing for him. It's not clear when he would be released or if further hurdles remain. Los Angeles County was considering all other options regarding his release, Antonovich said.
According to the district attorney's office, Hubbart has acknowledged raping 40 women in California between 1971 and 1982, including 26 women in Los Angeles County.
In 1982, he was convicted of false imprisonment, rape, and forced oral copulation and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
He was paroled in 1990, but after two months he was arrested and convicted of false imprisonment for an attack on a jogger.
His prison term had been due to end in 1996, but he was instead admitted to a state hospital under a then newly enacted law that allowed sexually violent predators to be civilly committed for treatment.
Release terms would require 24-hour monitoring including a GPS ankle bracelet, treatment, a curfew and random searches, drug tests and polygraph tests.
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