Wilton residents fight placement of sex predator in rural, family neighborhood

Residents of a rural Wilton neighborhood are fighting the proposed placement of a sexually violent predator in the area after county officials delivered the news shortly before Christmas.

In a hearing on Jan. 4, a judge will hear the case to move Dariel Shazier, 50, to Wilton. Shazier has an extensive history of gaining the trust of teenage boys by offering to teach them karate, portraying himself as “Master Tang” and earning a “cult-like following” that enables him to sexually abuse children, court records show.

Shazier has been living in Del Paso Heights since 2017 after a Santa Clara County judge placed him there despite protests from residents and Sacramento County officials. He currently lives not far from Grant High School, according to previous reporting from The Bee.

Residents on La Clair Road in Wilton were notified of Shazier’s potential move to their neighborhood on Dec. 22 when law enforcement officers went door to door handing out notices, said Cindy Griswold, a resident of the street.

La Clair Road is a neighborhood of seven families each living on 5-to-10 acre parcels, Griswold said. There are 12 children living on the street ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers.

Shazier’s placement in the neighborhood would put him within 175 yards of children, she said.

“It’s a very family-oriented, quiet part of rural Sacramento County,” she said. “... It just seems so inappropriate on so many levels.”

Griswold said the county notices gave them until Dec. 30 to make their concerns known to the judge since they are not permitted to attend the court hearing because of COVID19 restrictions.

“We weren’t given much time at all and we are flummoxed as to why they could to do something like this and not give us more time to make our concerns heard,” she added.

Shazier has no apparent ties to Sacramento County. In a 2016 ruling, a judge said seven experts attested to Shazier still being mentally ill but able to be safely placed in a community with proper support, The Bee reported. His mental illness was not specified.

But in a 2010 trial, clinical psychologist Carolyn Murphy testified that his illness was paraphilia, an abnormal sexual desire characterized by violent and extreme activity.

Shazier has been locked in state hospitals for nearly a decade after determinations by two juries that he was a sexually violent predator. He qualified for that designation as a result of two prior convictions of molesting teenage boys.

In 2017, a proposed placement in Placer County was shot down after residents and public officials strongly opposed the move, saying that children lived throughout the area. The judge instead placed Shazier in Del Paso Heights.