Brown signs Gallagher’s sex predator bill

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Monday that requires a judge to consider residential, familial or employment connections before determining where a sexually violent predator can be placed on conditional release.

Current state law allows a court to look at placement in outside counties when locations in the county of domicile are not possible. The bill – AB 255, referred to as “Protect Our Communities Act” and authored by local Assemblyman James Gallagher – adds criteria to that process.

State law now requires a judge to consider where a sexually violent predator has lived and for how long, whether they’ve been employed, and if the person has any relatives or next of kin in counties before determining placement.

Gallagher said rural counties have become dumping grounds for such predators. This poses challenges to public safety in those communities because of the lack of resources, he said.

“Today, we took an important step forward in ending this flawed practice that threatens our North State communities,” Gallagher said in a press release.

Yuba County experienced a similar situation when a Monterey County judge decided to place a sexually violent predator on Ellis Road in District 10 at the end of May.

Eldridge Lindsey Chaney Jr., a convicted rapist from Monterey County, was placed in Yuba County as part of his conditional release from a state mental hospital. His placement is intended to transition him from a state hospital back into society.

District Attorney Pat McGrath said the new law will not have any effect on Chaney’s placement.

It also doesn’t rule out the possibility that a sexually violent predator from elsewhere won’t be placed in Yuba County again. It just adds factors a court must consider in the placement process, something that will help “guide” a judge’s decision, McGrath said.

“I don’t know whether those factors would have had a great deal of weight with the judge in Monterey County or not,” McGrath said. “The law now requires a judge to consider those things. How much weight a judge puts on those factors is up to each individual judge.”

McGrath said there have been no incidents involving Chaney since his placement.

“I think the hope was that everything would go relatively smoothly, that there would be no incidents,” he said. “So far, fingers crossed, we are on track to make this a successful placement.”