A judge's decision not to revoke the release of a serial rapist has outraged the community in Southern California where he has lived since his release last year.
Santa Clara County Judge Richard Loftus made his ruling Monday in the case of Christopher Hubbart, saying the man is not "a danger to the health and safety of others."
Cheryl Holbrook, one of the Ladies of Lake LA, a group created to fight Hubbart's release to their community, said she was angry and shaken by Monday's decision.
"This is scary news, really scary. Terrifying," said Holbrook, who lives about five miles away from Hubbart's home and said she was raped as a 14-year-old by two men at knifepoint and impregnated. "I've got the chills."
Holbrook fought against Hubbart's initial release to her community, even driving up to Santa Clara in April to provide public comment at a hearing. There have been daily demonstrations in front of Hubbart's home for months and some people have burned effigies and held up signs telling him to "burn in hell," she said.
One person tried to run him off the road and another pulled a toy gun on one of his guards and those attacks have only helped his case, she said.
"Those people that are out there, they only helped his case ... they've pushed and pushed and pushed on him, and he didn't react to them by going off on them or trying to fight with them," Holbrook said. "They just made him look like Mr. Goody Two Shoes. This really, really upsets me."
A contrite and polite Hubbart told the judge in April that keeping the ankle monitor fully powered was his responsibility. Prosecutors say it is a condition of his release.
Prosecutors asked that he be returned to a mental hospital less than a year after setting up residence in a neighborhood in the Antelope Valley outside Los Angeles.
Hubbart's attorney, public defender Christopher Yuen, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Michael D. Antonovich denounced Loftus' decision, saying it was dangerous and disappointing.
Hubbart has been in and out of prison and mental hospitals since he was first convicted of rape 1972. He acknowledged raping about 40 women through 1982, using a pillowcase to muffle screams.
A jury declared Hubbart a sexually violent predator in 2000, and he was committed to a state-run mental hospital in Coalinga, even though he had served his prison term.
In 2013, doctors at the hospital declared that Hubbart had completed treatment and was fit to live in the community. Another Santa Clara County judge ordered Hubbart to live in Southern California near the area where he was raised.
