A judge in Ventura County ruled Thursday morning that a sexually violent predator will not be relocated to Joshua Tree. About 20 representatives from the county and the Morongo Basin—including Sheriff John McMahon, Sheriff’s Captain Trevis Newport, County Supervisor Dawn Rowe, Morongo Unified School District Superintendent Tom Baumgarten, Councilman Jim Schooler from Yucca Valley and Councilman Dan Mintz from Twentynine Palms, along with several Morongo Basin residents—spoke against the relocation of Ross Wollschlager, 56, to Joshua Tree. Wollschlager, who is currently housed at the state hospital in Coalinga, has no ties to the county or the Morongo Basin.
Wollschlager was convicted of multiple rapes in Ventura County in the 1980s, and in 1996 the state formally declared him a sexually violent predator after he crept into a 10-year-old girl’s bedroom and sexually molested her. Last month, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney’s office learned that a Ventura County judge had ordered that Wollschlager be released from the state hospital and moved to a home on Conejo Avenue in north Joshua Tree near Aberdeen and Border Avenues. A hearing was held Thursday morning in Ventura County at which county representatives and residents protested the placement of Ross Wollschlager in Joshua Tree. The judge initially said the hearing would be continued for a week, but at the end of the hearing, denied the relocation of Ross Wollschlager to Joshua Tree.
