Committee to weigh ‘safe parking’ sites for twice-convicted Bay Area rapist’s pending release

SANTA CRUZ — The decision on where to house a 71-year-old twice-convicted rapist appeared no closer to conclusion Monday than when he was deemed eligible for conditional release and outpatient care in October 2019.

“It’s 46 months later, and we don’t have a single property,” attorney Stephen Prekoski said on behalf of his client, Michael Cheek during a court hearing. “How long will the court tolerate that? It’s not a rhetorical question.”

An effort for a housing committee designated to come to mutual agreement on Cheek’s placement appeared to have been stymied by concerns about the applicability of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, a law governing all state boards and commissions.

During this week’s hearing, Santa Cruz County Superior Judge Syda Cogliati chided the committee’s representatives, including The Department of State Hospitals, its contractor Liberty Healthcare Corp., defense and prosecution attorneys and the County of Santa Cruz for foisting blame on each other for the lack of progress. Cogliati said she had been seriously considering ordering weekly meetings with the group to ensure progress and, after hearing that the committee could retire to closed session to discuss Cheek’s confidential information, ordered the next meeting to be held within 15 days.

A Liberty representative told the court that her office was investigating placing Cheek in a recreational vehicle and having him reside in rotating designated parking sites within Santa Cruz County. The representative was unable to provide specifics on which programs she was referring to, though citing “safe parking” sites at the Santa Cruz Police Department’s parking lot and National Guard Armory and “two others.” She said Liberty needed to do further due diligence on the fitness of the sites and to confer with the committee.

Prekoski asked Cogliati to release his client without a specified site, considered a “transient release” and declare Liberty incompetent. He said there would always be more questions, more details and more concerns to consider and that “Mr. Cheek will die in custody” at the rate the process was moving. Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Alex Byers said that the state would first need to show a comprehensive management plan for transient release, as simply placing Cheek out in the community “and hoping that Liberty can control him” was not acceptable.

Cogliati said she was leaning toward a transient release order. She added that several homes had been considered in the past nearly four years and that one year had been spent in appeals. She also directed Ruby Marquez, Santa Cruz County chief assistant county counsel, to submit a petition for release outside of the county within 25 days, after obtaining addresses for Cheek’s family members.

Cheek’s ongoing connection to Santa Cruz County

In 1980, a jury found Cheek guilty of rape and forcible oral copulation involving the gunpoint abduction of a 21-year-old Los Gatos woman from Seabright State Beach. Prior to serving his prison term, however, Cheek escaped custody while facing a Contra Costa County probation violation case. Cheek headed to Lake County, where he raped another young woman. In 1981, another jury convicted Cheek of rape, use of a weapon and furnishing methamphetamine to a 15-year-old girl.

Prosecutors succeeded in having Cheek designated as a “sexually violent predator” prior to the scheduled completion of his prison sentence. Cheek, in 1997, was involuntarily committed to a California Department of Mental Health state hospital for treatment and confinement, rather than being released. The state defines a sexually violent predator as “a person who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense and has a diagnosed mental disorder that makes the person a danger to others.”

In 2019, State Hospitals deemed Cheek to have undergone sufficient treatment and said he was fit to be released after meeting the conditions of state statutes. Among several efforts to find a suitable rental home placement in at least three other counties was a state contractor’s recommendation that he live in a rural Bonny Doon home. Cogliati approved Cheek’s placement there in November 2021, a decision that was overruled in January on appeal to the Sixth Appellate District due to a home school on the same street. The state Supreme Court denied a petition to review the case in March.

Cheek’s case is scheduled to return to court Aug. 8.