Aptos property owner backs out as potential home for convicted rapist – Santa Cruz Sentinel

APTOS – The owner of an Aptos property that was being chosen as a home site for a soon-to-be-released twice-convicted rapist has taken the site out of the running, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday.

Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Alex Byers told the Sentinel his office received an email letter Wednesday from Liberty Healthcare Corp., an organization hired by the Department of State Hospitals to find a home for 72-year-old sex offender Michael Cheek. The letter said the owner of the home near Spreckels Drive wanted to back out of a previously made agreement.

“On August 28, 2024, the homeowner contacted Liberty staff and requested that her lease with Mr. Cheek be rescinded, which rendered the property unavailable for rental,” reads an excerpt from Liberty's letter, which was also submitted to Santa Cruz County Superior Court. “Liberty followed internal procedures to repossess the property and the homeowner has returned the reservation money paid for the property. Liberty respectfully requests that the above-referenced property be withdrawn from the court's consideration.”

The letter, which Byers said was written by Liberty Healthcare Corp. deputy program director Isamar Mayol, arrived days after Cheek's housing address was made public on Aug. 26. The notice sparked an outcry from local community members familiar with Cheek's past as a sexually violent offender who spent a total of 43 years in prison and psychiatric care.

Byers said his office has been listening to community feedback for some time.

“We had serious concerns about putting him there from the beginning,” Byers said, noting that the house is about a mile from Seacliff State Beach. Cheek was previously sentenced to 20 years in prison in the early 1980s after kidnapping and raping a 21-year-old Los Gatos woman at gunpoint at Seabright State Beach.

Byers also said his office continued to have an issue with the home's proximity to a “school” that serves 35 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. However, whether the facility was a school was previously disputed in court. Judge Nancy de la Peña ultimately rejected the designation, ruling that it was not an obstacle to Cheeks' placement.

This latest attempt by the state to find a suitable place for Cheek came after evaluating more than 4,000 sites and over a year of consultation with a local committee that included representatives from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office, the Santa Cruz Public Defender, the Santa Cruz County Attorney's Office and the state.

But Byers took issue with that, too, claiming that while his office and the sheriff's team attended meetings, Liberty did not adequately cooperate with local authorities and advocate for the Aptos site despite the concerns raised.

“Liberty is not from Santa Cruz County; Liberty doesn't know much about Santa Cruz County,” Byers said. “Liberty finds a tenant who wants to rent and rents.”

Byers said Liberty disclosed the property's address to his office and other parties to the case on April 12, but a court order blocked its disclosure until August at Liberty's request.

The Sentinel reached out to Liberty for comment, but its representatives only provided the contact information for the Department of State Hospitals' communications office, which did not provide comment before the Sentinel's press deadline. The Sentinel also reached out to the county public defender's office for comment, but did not receive a response before press deadline Wednesday.

In a statement sent to the Sentinel after Wednesday's deadline, the Department of State Hospitals wrote that it is “committed to providing effective care in a safe environment in a financially responsible manner and to maintaining public safety,” and that federal and state patient privacy laws prohibit it from releasing specific information about current or former patients.

In addition, online links to resources have been posted that address the process of placing sexually violent offenders in outpatient conditional release programs.

The Sentinel received an email last week from a person named Gina Harrington, who purported to speak on behalf of the partners who own the property in Aptos. Harrington, who did not provide personal information or grant an interview with the Sentinel, wrote, “There is no lease agreement with Michael Cheek for the property and there never will be.” She added that the court would be notified as soon as possible.

After the Seabright State Beach kidnapping and subsequent conviction, Cheek temporarily escaped from a Contra Costa County detention center and raped a 15-year-old girl in Lake County before being recaptured and convicted.

After serving his prison sentence, he waived his right to a trial and instead opted for commitment to a mental hospital after being classified as a sexually violent offender under state law in 1997. After 22 years of psychiatric treatment at a state hospital, Judge Stephen Siegel granted Cheek a conditional release for supervised outpatient treatment in 2019.

This was the beginning of several failed attempts in at least three counties to find a home for Cheek. In 2021, a home in rural Bonny Doon was deemed appropriate for Cheek, but that decision was overturned at the appeal level about 14 months later because a residential school was being built near the proposed home.

According to the county press release, there are currently no proposed placement options for Cheek, pending court approval.

Originally published: September 4, 2024 at 16:49