Santa Cruz County Sheriff Chris Clark is urging a judge to block a plan that would place a 74-year-old man twice convicted of rape in a remote home in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Los Gatos, near schools, a Girl Scout camp and a public park. State authorities are considering releasing Michael Thomas Cheek, a court-designated sexually violent predator, from a mental hospital and moving him into a monitored house at 25237 Terrace Grove Road, off Soquel San Jose Road.
Clark publicly identified the Terrace Grove Road address as the proposed placement site and laid out his objections in detail, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. The sheriff said the property sits near schools, a Girl Scout camp, a church, a public park and neighborhoods where families live, raising concerns about the proximity to children even though the home would be supervised. As reported by KRON4, the proposed release has triggered public outrage in the surrounding community.
Terrain and Dead Zones Worry the Sheriff
Beyond the location's proximity to families, Clark has focused heavily on the physical landscape itself. He said the dense forest, steep terrain, limited road access and unreliable cellular and GPS coverage could interfere with electronic monitoring, communication and a timely law enforcement response, according to the Mercury News. Clark has argued that narrow roads, abandoned structures and recreational vehicles scattered throughout the mountains could complicate any search or apprehension effort if Cheek were to reoffend, and that spotty GPS coverage could hinder deputies trying to locate him quickly.
Cheek, who is from Concord, raped a young woman at gunpoint on Seabright Beach in 1980. He was convicted of kidnapping, rape and forcible oral copulation for that attack, and after escaping from custody in Contra Costa County in 1981, he fled to Lake County and raped a 15-year-old girl at gunpoint, per the reporting outlined by KRON4. He was later deemed a sexually violent predator by a court, with the Santa Cruz Sentinel attributing that designation to California's 1998 Sexually Violent Predator Act.
Years of Treatment, Years of Rejected Addresses
Cheek has served decades in prison and completed a sex offender treatment program at a locked psychiatric facility in 2019, after which he was cleared to move into a monitored house under the state's conditional release program. Under California law, the Department of State Hospitals has no authority to release an SVP patient on its own; courts hold that power, and any residential placement for a CONREP participant must be ordered by a judge, according to the California Department of State Hospitals.
State authorities have tried multiple times over the past five years to place Cheek under supervision somewhere in Santa Cruz County, with each attempt collapsing before he could move in. Cheek received conditional-release approval in 2019, and a proposed placement at 310 Wild Iris Lane in Bonny Doon later failed. A later proposal to house him at 204 Forest Drive in Aptos also fell apart after the homeowner withdrew from the rental agreement.
Statewide Program Faces Scrutiny Over Cost and Housing Delays
The difficulty finding a home for Cheek mirrors a broader pattern across California's conditional release program for sexually violent predators. A state audit found that Liberty Healthcare, which administers the program, took an average of 17 months to secure housing for current participants, with two individuals waiting more than three years for placement approval, according to the Los Angeles Times. The same reporting found the program's annual costs jumped nearly 75% between fiscal years 2018-19 and 2022-23, from $6.6 million to $11.5 million.
Only about 5% of patients committed to the Department of State Hospitals under the SVP Act ever achieve conditional release, according to inewsource. Of the 56 people who have gone through the program statewide, only two have been reconvicted of criminal acts, though 18 were later recommitted to state hospitals after being deemed dangerous, per the Los Angeles Times. One of those cases involved Christopher Hubbart, who was conditionally released into Palmdale in 2014 only to be recommitted to Coalinga State Hospital in 2017 after evidence he had violated his release terms.
Santa Cruz County is not alone in pushing back. In San Diego County, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to formally oppose placing three sexually violent predators in rural communities, according to NBC San Diego. Those proposed placements would put Michael Poulsom and Reynaldo Delrosario in Boulevard and John Phillips in Borrego Springs, as reported by Fox 5 San Diego.
What Happens Next
A judge must approve the proposed home address before Cheek can be released from custody and move in. Judge Nancy De La Peña is scheduled to preside over a hearing on arguments for and against the Los Gatos placement on October 30 at 1:30 p.m. in Department 6 of the Santa Cruz County Courthouse. Community members can submit written concerns about the plan by emailing [email protected] before that date, and the judge has said she will read comments submitted by email as part of her consideration.
