County supervisors oppose release of serial rapist to Lake Los Angeles

Los Angeles County’s board of supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to take a stand against a court’s move to release a serial rapist in the Palmdale area.

Christopher Hubbart admitted to raping more than three dozen women throughout California in the 1970s and ‘80s and has spent nearly two decades in a state mental hospital.

Over strenuous objections from the L.A. County officials, a Santa Clara County judge said last week that Hubbart can be released under electronic monitoring and other strict conditions in the Lake Los Angeles area near Palmdale -- possibly as early as December. The judge ruled in May that Hubbart could be released in Los Angeles County.

The five county supervisors voted to send a letter to Judge Gilbert Brown urging him to reject the address where Hubbart is slated to reside -- in the 17100 block of Laredo Vista in Lake Los Angeles -- based on its proximity to Stephen Sorenson County Park and a church that frequently holds youth programs.

Hubbart’s attorney has argued that he has completed years of intensive treatment and monitoring and no longer poses a risk to the public.

But lawyers for Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey argued that Hubbart should be released in Santa Clara County, where his most recent crimes were committed, not in L.A. County, where he grew up and lived briefly the last time he was released from prison in 1993.

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, whose district includes Lake Los Angeles, also urged his constituents to submit comments to the judge opposing the proposed housing site by Nov. 29, either by emailing the Los Angeles County district attorney at [email protected], or by writing to: Hubbart L.A. Safety Task Force, c/o District Attorney’s Office Sex Crimes Division, 320 West Temple St., Room 777, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

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Times staff writer Jack Leonard contributed to this report.

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