The Carmel Pine Cone

10A The Carmel Pine Cone September 25, 2015
Asst. public defender blames media for sex predator housing troubles
By KELLY NIX
THE NEWS media this week were
blamed in part for failure by a state contractor
to find a home in Monterey County for
Eldridge Chaney, a sexually violent predator
from Seaside who assaulted several women
in the 1970s and 1980s.
For more than a year, Liberty Healthcare
has searched for but not found a place to
house Chaney, who is living in a state mental
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hospital having serving about 20 years in
prison for rape and attempted rape.
During a court hearing in Salinas
Wednesday, Assistant Monterey County
Public Defender Don Landis told Superior
Court Judge Lydia Villarreal that the reason
Liberty hasn’t found a house is because of
the “adverse media attention” the case has
received.
“As the year has gone by, it has been more
and more difficult, given the media attention
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… that [Liberty is] finding little or no properties
that are available,” Landis said.
He said media attention to the Chaney
case has “come down” on property owners
considering renting their homes “in all sorts
of threatening ways.” Managing Deputy
District Attorney Chuck Olvis told The Pine
Cone that nobody has been charged with
such threats.
Liberty officials this year have publicly
identified only one home — near Prunedale
— as a location for Chaney. However, following
outcry on social media in July,
including one Facebook user who said
Chaney should be “lynched,” the unnamed
homeowner backed out of the deal.
Monterey County Superior Court Judge
Mark Hood in October 2014 determined
Chaney could leave Coalinga State Hospital
and be conditionally released somewhere in
Monterey County.
“So it’s time for Mr. Chaney to be
released, and I ask that we all work diligently
to do that,” Landis said.
Landis recommended that Villarreal consider
permitting Liberty to explore other
options, including “transient motel arrangements,”
housing outside Monterey County,
and housing that does not comply with
Jessica’s Law, which, among other things,
mandates where sex offenders can be placed.
However, while Villarreal ordered Liberty
to seek “all avenues of placement” for
Chaney, she rejected Landis’ request that
Liberty seek housing at odds with Jessica’s
Law. She set the matter for a December hearing.
“Certainly, if any [new housing] options
become available, I would encourage you to
get this on the court calendar immediately
and the court will consider it,” the judge told
Landis.
Chaney was convicted of rape and assault
with intent to commit rape on several women,
including a military wife and a 16-year-old
girl. He used weapons to terrorize his victims.
His first offense was in 1978, and his
last in 1988. Chaney spent more than 20
years in prison before being treated at state
hospitals in Atascadero and Coalinga.
A psychologist who had known Chaney
for nine years testified at an April 2011 hearing
that some tests showed Chaney’s “risk of
conviction for another sexual offense [was]
moderate to high compared to other sex
offenders, and that Chaney’s diagnosis of
antisocial personality disorder could increase
his risk for re-offense.”
The psychologist also said, “It is difficult
to assess Mr. Chaney’s current degree of sexual
self-regulation.” He noted that early tests
showed Chaney had “a deviant sexual interest
in sexually aggressive acts,” but that he had
“completed behavioral counterconditioning
treatments” and “now displays a non-deviant
sexual arousal profile.”
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