I have said this for years and I’ll keep saying it: San Diego County is not a dumping ground for sexually violent predators. On Tuesday, Supervisor Joel Anderson and I are bringing an urgent item to the Board of Supervisors to put that on the record before a judge makes his next decision.
Here is what’s going on.
On October 15, Superior Court Judge Theodore Weathers is expected to decide whether to release two sexually violent predators, Michael Poulsom and Reynaldo Delrosario, from the Department of State Hospitals and place them in Boulevard, a small rural community in our unincorporated backcountry.
Meanwhile, another sexually violent predator is unaccounted for. Merle Wakefield was convicted of lewd acts with a child under 14 and rape by force. The County opposed his release. A judge approved it anyway in November 2024 as a “transient” release, because no specific home could be found for him. Last month, Wakefield took off his GPS monitor in Rancho Bernardo and disappeared. He is still at large.
So the same state agency and the same contractor that lost track of Wakefield are now asking a court to trust them with two more.
What our board letter does
- Directs the County to send a letter to Judge Weathers telling him about the Wakefield escape and asking him to reject the release and placement of Poulsom and Delrosario in Boulevard.
- Directs the County to demand answers from the Department of State Hospitals and its contractor, Liberty Healthcare. What are they doing to find Wakefield and return him to custody? What are they changing so that no other predator under their watch slips his monitoring?
- Moves the item onto Tuesday’s agenda as a late docket request, so the Board can act before the October 15 hearing and not after it.
Why this matters
- The safeguard failed. GPS monitoring is what the state points to when it tells communities these placements are safe. One of them cut it off and walked away.
- Rural communities keep getting picked. The state and Liberty Healthcare have focused these placements on low-income neighborhoods in the unincorporated area. One was approved for a home directly across the street from a school bus stop.
- The court needs to hear from us. The County doesn’t get the final say on these placements. Judges do. That makes it our job to get the facts in front of Judge Weathers before he rules.
- Residents deserve answers. Families across this county have a right to know how this happened and what is being done about it.
- It costs taxpayers nothing. There is no fiscal impact to the County.
I want to thank Supervisor Anderson, who represents Boulevard, for his partnership on this. Protecting kids and families is not a District 2 issue or a District 5 issue. It is the first job of local government.
Whatever Judge Weathers decides on October 15, the County needs to be on record, and the state needs to explain itself. I’ll keep you posted after Tuesday’s vote.
San Diego County District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond
https://www.supervisorjimdesmond.com/
