It’s official! San Diego County officials are withdrawing their reckless proposal to place a Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) in Rancho Bernardo.
The move came just hours after former San Diego City Councilmember Carl DeMaio held a press conference to release a letter from the owners of the proposed placement property telling the Judge in the case that they had changed their minds and no longer wanted to lease their property for use by a Sexually Violent Predator.
DeMaio, who has been spearheading a citizens’ revolt against the proposed placement, had negotiated with the owners to convince them to rescind their property offer. DeMaio credits the immediate outpouring of public comments against the proposal as the key to educating the property owners and sending the message to politicians who were blindly allowing these reckless placements in family communities.
While the Rancho Bernardo community can celebrate this win, DeMaio says the fight is far from over.
“While we are very pleased that the placement of this Sexually Violent Predator in Rancho Bernardo has been withdrawn, we worry about which neighborhood will be targeted next,” DeMaio shares.
“That’s why we will continue to demand reforms to the criminal justice system so that no family neighborhood will ever be targeted to receive any Sexually Violent Predators in their area,” DeMaio promises.
DeMaio is urging all San Diego voters concerned with the placement of Sexually Violent Predators to immediately contact the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to ask them to pass a reform package imposing greater accountability on site reviews for SVP placement.
Specifically DeMaio is asking voters to write their representatives asking them to support a proposal (Agenda Item 3) docketed at the upcoming October 5 meeting by County Supervisor Jim Desmond that will begin the process of reform. (See contact information below)
“Jim Desmond’s proposal is a great first step in fighting any future placements of Sexually Violent Predators and we need to get every voter in San Diego to communicate immediately to their representatives that they need to support Desmond’s proposal,” DeMaio says.
DeMaio says voters should focus on communicating with District 3 County Supervisor Terra Lawsom-Remer because she’s been weak on the issue of Sexually Violent Predators in the past.
“Just a few weeks ago Terra Lawson-Remer was saying that Sexually Violent Predators deserved privacy and she voted against public testimony in court proceedings regarding SVP placement – so I do not know if we can really count on her to vote responsibly on this issue,” DeMaio warned.
After the County Board of Supervisors votes, DeMaio says the next step is to fight for changes in state law. DeMaio is working with public safety advocates on developing ideas to propose in the coming weeks.
To join the fight against Sexually Violent Predators, sign up at www.StopSexualPredators.org
Contact for Terra Lawson-Remer (District 3):
Terra.Lawson-Remer@sdcounty.ca.gov
Phone: 619-531-5533
Contacts for all County Board of Supervisors: https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/general/bos.html