Over the last six months, the County District Attorney’s office has fought efforts to have convicted sexually violent predator Luther Evans placed in the Morongo Basin. The proposed area of release includes Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley, Morongo Valley, or neighboring communities of the Morongo Basin.
In October 2003, Evans was committed as a sexually violent predator by the San Francisco Superior Court. His commitment followed criminal convictions for residential burglary, rape and assault with intent to commit rape in 1976, and a second rape in 1980. He further committed a sexual battery while attempting rape in 1991. Per court records, Evans was presented as a “wanton” and “lawless” psychopath.
In August 2015, Evans petitioned the court for conditional release. In November 2015, the court granted Evans’s petition, releasing him to outpatient treatment.
State law required that Evans be placed in San Francisco County where he committed his crimes, unless it could find extraordinary circumstances requiring specific notice to the county where he would be released. Over the course of the next six months, Liberty Health Care (who was responsible for overseeing the placement) told the San Francisco court that it was unable to find a location in the nine Bay-area counties. Liberty indicated it was similarly unsuccessful when the search was expanded east of Santa Clara County and north to the state line.
On May 18, 2016, the involved parties appeared before the court in San Francisco and proposed placement in San Bernardino County. Upon receiving notice, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office filed multiple opposition briefs and appeared on behalf of the citizens of San Bernardino County in San Francisco Superior Court to successfully halt the placement of Evans at this time. During this process, Sexually Violent Predator prosecutor Maureen O’ Connell discovered that the San Francisco Court had never actually had a hearing in which Evans received a civil commitment to the State Mental Hospital as a sexually violent predator, a prerequisite to any outpatient release and supervision.
“As a result of this discovery, the applicable law provided to the court and our arguments, the San Francisco Superior Court rescinded the outpatient placement order and set the case for trial to determine whether Mr. Evans remained a sexually violent predator, subject to placement at the State Hospital,” O’Connell said.
A hearing is scheduled for further proceedings on the case on January 18 in San Francisco Superior Court.
