Source: ACSOL
A judge in California Placer County Superior Court has granted a motion filed by the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) to intervene in the case of William Stephenson who has been designated a sexually violent predator (SVP). Intervention allows ACSOL to assist Mr. Stephenson in his quest to be placed in a residence in Placer County, his county of domicile, or another location.
Due in large part to opposition from the District Attorney of Placer County, Mr. Stephenson has already waited for more than 850 days to be placed in a private residence after he was admitted by the CA Department of State Hospitals into the conditional release program. During that time, several locations have been identified as potential residences, however, each time the owner of the residence declined to rent a residence in which Mr. Stephenson could reside.
“The Department of State Hospitals only allows individuals to enter the conditional release program after they have met many stringent requirements and a determination made by experts that the individual can be safely released into the community,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “In the history of the conditional release program, less than 60 people have qualified for that program and no one admitted into that program has every committed a subsequent sex offense.”
The Court will conduct its next hearing on July 8 during which motions for Mr. Stephenson’s release as a transient will be considered. The public defender representing Mr. Stephenson filed the original motion for transient release and the district attorney has opposed that motion. ACSOL will now be allowed to file an additional motion because of its status as an intervenor in the case.
During the hearing, the Court asked for information from the Department of State Hospitals regarding whether housing outside Placer County, including Sacramento County, might be available for Mr. Stephenson. The Court also asked for information regarding whether Mr. Stephenson could be housed with another individual designated as an SVP in Placer County. That information is expected to be shared with the Court during the July 8 hearing.
Thank you for doing this work, challenging unconstitutional safety theater.
I’m glad ACSOL is taking up the SVP issue. As long as SVPs are demonized and never released and never let off the registry, the registry will remain forever.
Good ol’ Placer County, whose sheriff spent God-knows how much time and money (county and federal) searching for Kiely Rodni by initiating a registry scrub of all Placer and surrounding counties when they presumed she was kidnapped by a registrant because they couldn’t find her car. Straight out of the pages of Law and Order: SVU. (Rodni was found by a group of volunteer scuba divers within hours of their arrival after searching the closest lake to her last known location which had supposedly been searched already. No evidence of assault of any kind was found.)
If the competence of the Placer County DA is comparable to the sheriff’s department, Janice should have very little (if any) trouble with this case.
These individuals – so called SVPs – need all the support we can provide. Thank you Janice!