For the second time in about a year and a half, a judge in another county has ordered that a sexually violent predator should be housed in the Morongo Basin. Last week, an Orange County court said that Lawtis Rhoden, 71, who has been convicted of multiple child rapes since 1969, should be relocated to Twentynine Palms. Rhoden was first convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in Florida in 1969 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. While on parole, Rhoden raped four other children in 1984 in Orange County, Los Angeles County, and Nashville. He was sentenced to 20 years in Tennessee, 12 years in Orange County, and six years in Los Angeles County. At the same time, Rhoden defrauded people out of $440,000 by pretending to be an investment broker or lawyer. Rhoden was released from California state prison in 2004, but a jury found that he was a sexually violent predator, and he was committed to a state hospital for treatment. In October 2019, an Orange County court ordered that Rhoden be released into the community under the supervision of Liberty Healthcare, and last month, the court found “extraordinary circumstances” existed to authorize relocating him outside of Orange County. On March 12, the court ordered Rhoden be moved to a home in Twentynine Palms. Reporter Cassidy Taylor reports on what the next steps are…
San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson, Sheriff John McMahon, and other county officials strongly object to Lawtis Rhoden, a sexually violent predator, being ordered to live in Twentynine Palms. The district attorney has ordered deputies to appear before the Orange County Superior Court on April 16 and oppose Rhoden’s release into Twentynine Palms. Deputies will be going door-to-door, beginning today (March 19), to contact residents in the immediate vicinity of where Rhoden’s proposed residence will be to gather key demographics and vital information to oppose the relocation of the sexually violent predator. COVID-compliant town hall meetings are being scheduled and more information will be available soon. Residents are urged to share their concerns and opinions with the Sheriff’s Department about the relocation of Lawtis Rhoden to Twentynine Palms.
In the fall of 2019, a Ventura County court attempted to relocate a sexually violent predator, Ross Wollschlager, to Joshua Tree. Community outrage prevented the move.
You may email concerns and opinions to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department at [email protected] or send a letter to:
San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office
303 West 3rd Street, 4th Floor
San Bernardino, CA 92415-0502
Attn: Deputy District Attorney Maureen O’Connell
From the Sheriff’s press release:
Rhoden committed multiple rapes of children. In Cocoa Beach, Florida in 1969, he lured a 13-year-old victim back to his apartment and raped her on three separate occasions. Rhoden was convicted through a plea agreement of one felony lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 years and sentenced to 14 months in a state mental hospital and 12 years in state prison. Rhoden was treated in the state mental hospital for his inability to control his sexual drive for young girls and, although he had the opportunity to do so, he did not attempt to obtain assistance for himself following his release. After serving his prison sentence, he was paroled.
While on parole, Rhoden sexually assaulted four children in two states. Rhoden was convicted of rape by force, forceful sexual penetration, sexual battery, and two counts of forcible rape stemming from crimes he committed in Orange County and Los Angeles County, California in April and June 1984. These sexual assaults were committed in three separate incidents against two 14-year-old girls and one 17-year-old girl. While those crimes were under investigation, Rhoden went to Nashville, Tennessee where he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in December 1984 and was subsequently convicted of rape and use of a minor for obscene purposes. In all four instances of sexual assault, Rhoden held himself out as a photographer and, in an effort to lure in his victims, offered them modeling photoshoots. Rhoden drove up to each of his three sexual assault victims in Orange County and Los Angeles County while they were on foot when attempting to entice them into his car. The State of Tennessee sentenced Rhoden to 20 years in state prison, the Orange County Superior Court sentenced him to 12 years in state prison, and the Los Angeles County Superior Court sentenced him to six years in state prison.
From March of 1983 until his arrest in Tennessee, Rhoden also defrauded people in California, Florida, and Texas of approximately $440,000. The major scheme involved inserting personal ads in newspapers, creating a relationship with women answering the ads, holding himself out as an investment broker or lawyer, and convincing the women as well as their friends to provide him with large sums of money to invest.
Rhoden was released from state prison in 2004 and detained in the Orange County jail based on an SVP petition filed by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. He was later found by an Orange County jury to be a Sexually Violent Predator under the state Welfare & Institutions Code and committed to the Department of State Hospitals for treatment.
