HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - A placement hearing is scheduled Tuesday for a sexually violent serial predator dubbed the "Pillowcase Rapist," whose planned release to the Antelope Valley has been opposed by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and county Supervisor Kathryn Barger, among others.
Superior Court Judge Robert Harrison, sitting in the Hollywood Courthouse, is expected to hear the case of Christopher Hubbart, who was granted conditional release in March by a Santa Clara County judge over the objections of Gascón's office, which noted last month that the Department of State Hospitals has recommended placement in the Antelope Valley.
Hubbart was convicted in 1973, 1982 and 1990 in L.A. County and northern California for a series of at least 40 rapes and other sex crimes -- reportedly getting the "Pillowcase Rapist" nickname because he used pillowcases to muffle his victims' screams.
He was subsequently detained as a "sexually violent predator" and committed to the Department of State Hospitals in 2000. Hubbart was initially released from Coalinga State Hospital in July 2014 and assigned to live at a Palmdale-area home -- despite an outcry from residents and elected officials in the area.
In 2017, a judge in Santa Clara County revoked Hubbart's conditional release, ruling that there was "sufficient evidence" to justify ordering him to be re-committed to a state hospital or other approved facility for violating the terms of his release.
In a footnote in his ruling, the judge wrote that "the actions of the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Office were, in this court's view, reprehensible."
The judge wrote that the sheriff -- who was not identified by name in the 2017 ruling -- was "less than cooperative with the outpatient team, hampering success of the placement" of Hubbart.
That judge also noted then that the D.A.'s office unsuccessfully tried in 2015 to have Hubbart's conditional release revoked in an action that was "wholly without merit," filed another such request and, "most seriously, interfered with the therapy, in respondent's (Hubbart's) view, by a continuing pattern of seeking revocation that appears to this court to be the reason respondent withheld information from the polygraph examiner."
Then-L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said at the time that Hubbart "is a prolific serial rapist and even after years of treatment he remains a danger to women."
Her successor, Gascón, is also objecting to Hubbart's release in the Antelope Valley.
"Continuing to release sexually violent predators into under-served communities like the Antelope Valley is both irresponsible and unjust," Gascón said in a statement last month.
Barger, whose Fifth District includes the Antelope Valley, announced last month that she had written to the L.A. County Superior Court to formally oppose the placement of a sexually violent predator in the Antelope Valley community of Juniper Hills.
"I submitted this letter to formally add my voice to the scores of others urgently asking the L.A. Superior Court to not place Christopher Hubbart in the Antelope Valley," Barger said in a statement. "Our desert communities should not disproportionately shoulder the burden of housing sexually violent predators because of their rural nature. It's unfair and unjust."
Barger listed several reasons she thinks the Juniper Hills community, which will be evaluated by the court Tuesday for its suitability to house Hubbart, is not appropriate.
They include spotty internet and cell phone coverage, long emergency response times by law enforcement, the ongoing burdens experienced by a community still recovering from the 2020 Bobcat Fire, and the fact that 25 homes are located within a square mile of the nominated site -- many of which, Barger said, house single women and women with children.
"They are law-abiding citizens who will be subjected to living in fear at no fault of their own," she said.
Barger also emphasized her general opposition to Hubbart being released at all.
"A man who has admitted to raping over 40 women and suspected of raping dozens more is not fit for release or community reintegration at any level," the supervisor said in the letter. "Christopher Hubbart belongs in a locked facility where there is no chance of him ever again harming another human being."