Bonny Doon residents were in tears Monday at the Santa Cruz County courthouse when a judge approved placing a sexually violent predator on their street.
Judge Syda Cogliati’s ruling allows convicted rapist Michael Cheek to move into a two-story house at 310 Wild Iris Lane. Shock spread through a packed courtroom gallery at Monday’s hearing.
Cheek, 69, is originally from Concord.
Cheek was convicted of multiple rapes in Contra Costa County and Santa Cruz County the 1980s. At one point, he escaped from custody and raped 15-year-old girl at gunpoint.
Cogliati’s decision went against strong objections from the Santa Cruz County sheriff, district attorney, and supervisors.
Sheriff Jim Hart said he was “outraged” by the judge’s ruling.
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“The way to fix this, not this specific placement, but to fix the system, is there are articles of legislation that need to be amended. This is happening all over California where Liberty is placing people. If people don’t think it’s right, they need to write to the state legislature and make demands so these people are not destroying neighborhoods,” he said.
SVPs must be approved by Coalinga to be ready to be put back into society. Despite them meeting that criteria (and few are allowed to leave Coalinga!), has there EVER been an SVP release that has NOT caused wild hysteria by the public, or that has NOT caused law enforcement and government officials to throw up wild rhetoric to the media about the SVP immediately raping everyone around them?
The scariest comment is by Brennan, who implies he will push for legislation to fix the imaginary problem, which probably intends to put all SVPs in the middle of the Mojave desert.
No, that would fail also, because the 10 residents who live out in the middle of nowhere would whip up the same violent rhetoric.
It’s not registrants destroying neighborhoods, it’s the fear mongering bull crap of politicians, law enforcement, and DAs destroying neighborhoods making communities less safe.
And nowhere did I see one single suggestion regarding where they want these individuals to go, other than “somewhere else.”
Brandon is 100% correct. I’d also add that in the registry’s early days, the implication was that simply knowing where prior sex offenders were made neighborhoods perfectly safe. And in all the years since, I still have yet to hear or read what specific “proactive measures people can take to protect themselves” from former offenders.
I think it’s safe to presume that there will be protests and threats directed at this man when he moves in, which sounds an awful lot like the harassment that LE purportedly won’t tolerate. I wonder how many civil and criminal complaints will be submitted against those who accost the registrant in this story. Betting none and if there are, will be immediately dismissed.