LOS ANGELES -- A judge Wednesday denied a request to allow a convicted sex offender to be moved from Santa Barbara County to the Antelope Valley area, following protests from local legislators and area residents.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dennis J. Landin said he did not find "extraordinary circumstances" to allow Kenneth Rasmuson to move to Los Angeles County.
"Currently before me, I don't see that," the judge said, noting that the defense could ask him to consider the issue again if extraordinary circumstances arise.
Rasmuson, 47, has not been able to find a permanent place to live in Santa Barbara County since he was "conditionally released" subject to monitoring late last year from a state hospital, where he had been held as a "sexually violent predator" after serving time in prison.
Rasmuson was convicted in 1981 at age 19 of forcible oral copulation, sodomy and lewd acts on an 11-year-old boy, and released into a conditional release program in 1985. He was then arrested again and convicted of molesting a 3-year-old boy and abandoning the youngster at an isolated location in the mountains.
Deputy District Attorney Karen Tandler, who represented the county during the hearing, said it would be "extremely difficult" for a person classified as a sexually violent predator to find permanent or semi-permanent housing.
But she said that was "not necessarily (the) extraordinary circumstances" that are required to mandate him being moved to another county.
Rasmuson's attorney, Ellen Coleman, countered that there was "good reason" for her client's conditional release to be transferred from neighboring Santa Barbara County and appeared dismayed by community opposition to the proposed move.
A busload of legislators and community activists from the Antelope Valley -- along with officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department -- packed the courtroom.
The judge said he had been informed that letters and e-mails about the issue had been sent to him, but noted that he could only hear from the attorneys and the agency designated to monitor Rasmuson.
Afterward, activists vowed to fight any efforts to bring sexually violent predators to their neighborhoods.
"It makes no difference how long it takes. We're not going away," Lancaster Mayor Henry W. Hearns said outside court.
Palmdale Mayor James C. Ledford Jr. said local officials are "paying attention now," and said it won't be tolerated "for these types of individuals to try to come in through the back door."
"We should not embrace these individuals," Ledford said. "I don't believe they are ever cured."
Attorney R. Rex Parris was on hand to represent Sen. George Runner, R- Antelope Valley, and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster.
"This man raped a 3-year-old boy, raped ... How could there be a more evil person?" he said. "...We don't owe this man anything."
The senator and assemblywoman, who were not at the hearing, have urged officials to keep Rasmuson in Santa Barbara County and launched a letter-writing effort opposing any plans to move him to the Antelope Valley.
Palmdale resident Wendy Swann, a mother of five, said she went to the hearing "to protect my children."
"I think he should stay in Santa Barbara where he's from and not be sent to another county," she told reporters. "... We shouldn't have to take some other county's problems."
Another mother, Maureen Ferrell, said her 10-year-old daughter had appealed to her to not let Rasmuson come to their area.
In Santa Barbara County, where he lives in a trailer, Rasmuson wears a electronic global positioning satellite bracelet and is monitored by a state contractor.
In a statement issued after the judge's decision, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich called the ruling "a victory for the children of the Antelope Valley."
"The judge correctly ruled that there were no legal grounds for releasing a violent sex predator from one county into another," he said. "It was nice to have a judge interpret the law -- and not override the law."
