LOS ANGELES -- A judge Wednesday denied a request to allow a convicted
sex
offender to be moved from Santa Barbara County to the Antelope
Valley area,
following protests from local legislators and area
residents.
Los
Angeles Superior Court Judge Dennis J. Landin said he did not
see
"extraordinary circumstances" to allow Kenneth Rasmuson to move to
Los
Angeles County.
Rasmuson, 47, has not been able to find a
permanent place to live in
Santa Barbara County since he was conditionally
released subject to
monitoring late last year from a state hospital, where he
had been held
as a sexually violent predator after being granted parole.
Rasmuson was convicted in 1981 at age 19 of forcible oral
copulation,
sodomy and lewd acts on an 11-year-old boy. He entered a
conditional
release program in 1985 and was then re-arrested and convicted
of
molesting a 3-year-old boy and abandoning the youngster at an
isolated
location in the mountains.
Deputy District Attorney Karen
Tandler, who represented the county
during the hearing, said the reality is
that "it will be difficult for
him to find housing."
But she said that
was "not necessarily (the) extraordinary
circumstances" that are required to
mandate him being moved to another
county.
Rasmuson's attorney, Ellen
Coleman, countered that there was "good
reason" for her client's conditional
release to be transferred from
neighboring Santa Barbara County and appeared
dismayed by those
objecting to such a move.
A busload of legislators
and community activists from the Antelope
Valley -- along with officials from
the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department -- packed the
courtroom.
Afterward, activists vowed that they would fight any efforts
to bring
sexually violent predators to their neighborhoods.
Rasmuson
-- who wears a electronic global positioning satellite
bracelet, lives in a
trailer and is monitored by a state contractor --
has had difficulty finding
a permanent place to live in Santa Barbara
County since he was conditionally
released.
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