The secretive move to place SVP locally

Liberty Healthcare, a secretive state contractor, is working to place sexually violent predator (SVP) Michael Cheek in a family neighborhood in Bonny Doon. Liberty would wreck residents’ mental health, destroy a neighborhood and tempt far worse tragedy, for profit. And they are eyeing other Santa Cruz County neighborhoods. The proposal has generated fear and outrage among residents and vehement opposition from our District Attorney, Sheriff, County Board of Supervisors, County School Board and state elected officials.

Kudos to Ryan Coonerty and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors for leadership in the effort to bring sanity to an out-of-control

SVP conditional release program (CONREP) by demanding that the state cease placing any SVPs in our county until a legislative fix gives local agencies a meaningful role in the process. Their action joins San Diego County in leading this statewide bipartisan movement.

But until a fix comes, protecting Santa Cruz communities from this threat remains in the hands of District Attorney Jeff Rosell, who must bring forward the full effort of his office to oppose the placement, and Santa Cruz County Judge Syda Coglioti who should reject it.

Despite being granted domicile here, Mr. Cheek’s placement in Santa Cruz County is not a foregone conclusion. Opposing all inappropriate placements that would threaten public health and safety is justified and necessary.

Liberty Healthcare operates from an intense financial incentive to win placement of SVPs, but their business model is facing setbacks. Liberty is coming into Santa Cruz County under pressure and is anything but impartial in its site recommendations.

Liberty earns at least $240,000 to $330,000 per SVP placed in their conditional release program but their caseload is not growing as projected. The squeeze is that Liberty has tremendous difficulty finding homeowners willing to lease to them, forcing them to promote inappropriate sites like this one. Liberty is on a losing streak with at least four proposed SVP placements failing in court and at least three more homeowners withdrawing from leases over the last nine months. These are significant setbacks relative to the 15 total SVPs in their program on Jan. 1, 2021, and 20 that they had projected for 2019/20 . An undisclosed number of Liberty’s SVP placements are also returned to custody for rules violations, another warning sign for this troubled program.

A major problem in securing new SVP placements is Liberty’s difficulty finding homeowners willing to lease to them. This compels Liberty to promote absurdly inappropriate sites (like the one in Bonny Doon) or their business fails.

Another problem is that outraged Californians are getting wise to Liberty’s secretive ways and deceptive courtroom practices. Grassroots neighborhood activists from other counties, appalled by their fights against Liberty, are organizing to press for a legislative solution and also support counties like ours scrambling to resist reckless SVP placements. The motion passed by the Santa Cruz County and

San Diego County boards of supervisors was born of this grassroots effort.

These friends have shown us how instead of partnering with the communities they work in, Liberty succeeds through secrecy, catching us off balance and then steamrolling complex concerns in court with biased and often false representations.

Success in court will require a strong effort from the DA. Success in Sacramento will require unified effort by all government agencies and elected officials in Santa Cruz County.

The climactic hearing on Michael Cheek’s placement is scheduled for 9 a.m., Nov. 15 at the County Courthouse at 700 Ocean Street.

Join Bonny Dooners in a courthouse step demonstration that morning starting at 7:30 a.m.