The notice had not gone out yet, no one knew a sexually violent predator was being released in the community. There had been no coverage until I wrote about this placement. After my first post, Freshwater community member Nicole Riggs provided a lot of information. The only answers I could get was from the Humboldt District Attorney's office. If you missed past coverage, it is linked below.
The DA's office recently sent out a press release. The August 23 hearing at 8:30 in Courtroom 4 is very important because Judge John Feeney will take input from the community before his decision on Joshua Cooley's placement.
Nicole Riggs is putting a call out to the community to attend this hearing. I have a separate post with a statement from her.
In addition to the DA, community members, Sheriff William Honsal sent this letter to Judge Feeney opposing Cooley's placement.
Honorable Judge Feeney Humboldt County Superior Court 825 5th Street Eureka, CA 95501
Re: Joshua Cooley SVP Hearing
"Honorable Judge Feeney,
As the Sheriff of Humboldt County, one of my primary functions is to protect the community from violent predators. The citizens deserve the protection of the judicial branch of government to also weigh the rights of a convicted felon vs the best interest of a law abiding community. Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) Joshua Cooley is someone that threatens the safety and security of this community. I am in full support of District Attorney Maggie Fleming’s ongoing efforts to prevent SVP Cooley’s release into this community. This is based on the fact that Cooley has been determined by multiple qualified SVP examiners that he is likely to engage in sexually violent criminal behavior if he was released into any community. Do we want a person released into our community who has a pattern of behavior such as harassing young children, breaking into houses, threatening to kill teenagers, giving minor girls alcohol and then taking them back to a location where he can take advantage of them sexually, and violently gang raping them?
Not only that, but this predator has a history of not being compliant with his terms of conditional release including his refusal to attend a sexual offender’s course?
The sexual offenders nowadays don’t have to go to parks or drive around in vans looking for persons to victimize. They can sit on their computers or personal communication devices in their own home and lure their victims to them or they will victimize them over the internet. You can try and restrict this access; however, these sexual offenders find a way. The desired placement location, Howard Heights Road, is not the right location to place such a sexually violent predator. Not only are there schools and parks in close proximity, but there are many families that have children that play outside in this rural community. This area has a lot of forest and open private land that a sexual offender can watch others, meet victims, hide or stash items, or run from the authorities.
Also, a GPS monitor doesn’t work the best in heavily forested areas. This rural area also can experience winter weather conditions that make the road impassible to Law Enforcement or first responders. Everything about releasing this Sexually Violent Predator into the Howard Heights area is wrong. A SVP should be at a location where authorities can easily check up on him. The location would also be conducive to a GPS ankle monitoring system that would work flawlessly without interference. They should be placed at a location where they can’t easily hide and when Law Enforcement is called, the response time would be immediate.
The California citizens who passed the sex offender laws expect the executive and judicial branches of government to protect them from Sexual Violent Predators. The constitutional rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness of those in the Freshwater area will be severely infringed upon if the predator is allowed to live in this rural area. Please reconsider the plan to move this SVP to Howard Heights. The people of Humboldt County have placed their trust in the District Attorney and the Sheriff to protect them from those who violate the law. We cannot allow a Sexually Violent Predator who has a history of noncompliance with state laws and post prison release conditions back into this community.
Thank you for putting the people first.
Respectfully, William F. Honsal III Humboldt County Sheriff
Previous post:
https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2018/08/glad-to-see-after-several-posts-on.html?m=1
(includes links to previous coverage)
Thanks John for posting this!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jon. In fact, notice never went out. It is Tuesday August 21, the hearing is August 23, and as of today, no one has received any official notice. Were it not for neighbors investigating for themselves the highly unusual activities of the landlord at 499 Howard Heights, we would know nothing.
ReplyDeleteNic, what were the Landlords activities that made everyone so curious that the rest of us might want to be privy to for our own neighborhoods, cuz this ain't going to be the last one.
ReplyDelete