Judge Feeney denies Sohum placement for Joshua Cooley; orders him on transient release in Eureka

Judge John Feeney denied a proposed placement for sexually violent predator Joshua Cooley at 2863 Alderpoint Road in Garberville. Instead he ordered transient release in Eureka.

This would mean Cooley moving every four days to a different location. Where he would would be confidential and not known to the public.

This despite the fact that Judge Feeney could consider the Tehama County property as an option, again. Judge Feeney made the original decision to release Cooley from the Coalinga State Hospital.

Cooley was convicted in 2001, he has reoffended twice,despite the threat of returning to prison. Cooley has violated parole, refused treatment and still makes sexually suggestive comments to female staff at the hospital. At least two doctors have deemed him a very high risk to reoffend.



The order to release Cooley from the Coalinga State hospital"is stayed" until the next review hearing on May 3 at 8:30 in Courtroom 1. This is to see if the motels in Eureka will still accept Cooley.

The list of motels in Eureka will be confidential.  Two staff members were going to provide 24/7 supervision of Cooley at the residence.

Sheriff William Honsal submitted a letter to Judge John Feeney via the District Attorney's office. 50 plus community members, First District Supervisor Rex Bohn were present today for the hearing, which was held in the Board of Supervisor Chambers. Several Sohum residents submitted letters to Judge Feeney via the DA.

A lot of what the attorneys said I have covered in previous posts.

I was the first one to report on his placement in Freshwater  and I covered every single hearing until Judge John Feeney ordered a Tehama County placement be found.  Then at the last hearing, the Tehama County placement was withdrawn and Cooley was back for consideration to be placed in Humboldt County.

Information and notice from the DA and HCSO about the Freshwater placement was after my first post on this case. Had that first post never been published, the public and other media would never have known about this case.

Some media attended one hearing held in the Board of Supervisors Chamber on the Freshwater placement and  some media attended today's hearing.

Arguments presented by the District Attorney, the defense and Liberty Healthcare, the company tasked with monitoring Cooley have been covered in detail in my previous posts, linked below.

The case is confidential  there are no minutes and there is exclusive and extensive coverage on this blog.

Earlier post:
https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2019/04/joshua-cooley-hearing-has-been-moved-to.html?m=1

Previous posts:
https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2019/03/despite-previous-decision-by-judge.html?m=1


https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2018/12/sexually-violent-predator-joshua-cooley.html?m=1

https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2018/11/sexually-violent-predator-joshua.html?m=1

https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2018/11/sexually-violent-predator-joshua.html?m=1

https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2018/10/once-again-it-falls-to-one-community.html?m=1

 https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2018/10/sexually-violent-predator-joshua-cooley.html?m=1
(contains links to more posts and previous coverage on this case)