Dariel Morrise Shazier was convicted in 1989 and 1994 in Santa Clara County for sex crimes against children under the age of 14 and 18, some of whom were drugged.
While he's been cleared to re-enter society, the California Department of State Hospitals is attempting to place Shazier in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood of Sacramento, more than 130 miles away from where he committed the crimes.
City Councilman Allen Warren represents the area and says community leaders plan to fight the placement. Warren says he doesn’t think his district should be a “dumping ground” for violent predators, regardless of whether they’ve been rehabilitated.
"He should be free to live without harassment or fearful that people will try to harm him for some of the past things that he's done,” Warren said. “But I think you also have an additional responsibility to the community and the citizens in which you're attempting to place these people. If the gentleman was from Sacramento, I think our responsibility level would be different."
There are about 100 sex offenders on the Megan's Law List in Warren's district.
This is not the first attempt to find a residence for Shazier.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Shazier could not be housed in Santa Clarabecause no landlord would take him. Two years ago, Placer County residents were able to stop a plan that would have had him living in a trailer on a 20-acre lot in Lincoln.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office has posted a notification on its website about the plan to locate Shazier in north Sacramento. The notice says Shazier served 17 years in prison before a jury ruled him a Sexually Violent Predator and he was sent to the California Department of State Hospitals for treatment. He has since been released, but has remained incarcerated according to the Megan’s Law website while the state attempts to find him a place to live. According to the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office, he’s been living on the grounds of Coalinga State Hospital.
Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert has written the judge in the case protesting the placement in part because the residence is near churches, childcare and less than a mile from Grant Union High School.
Her office also notes that Shazier would be monitored for a year and then would be be "eligible for full release from supervision to live unmonitored in the community."
There is no evidence he would stay in Del Paso Heights if that were to happen.
According to the state hospitals website, a sexually violent predator placement is accompanied by restrictions:
- 24/7 surveillance upon release
- Surveillance may be reduced depending upon behavior.
- GPS monitoring
- Resdience subject to unannounced searches
- Mandatory attendance at treatment and parole meetings
- Submit to polygraph and drug tests
- Any failure to follow the rules regarding treatment, drug screening, surveillance and examinations may result in a return to a state hospital.
CDSH spokesman Ralph Montano said by email the department could not talk about anything related directly to the Shazier case.
“We are a hospital and federal and state patient privacy laws apply to all current and former patients,” he wrote.
There will be a court hearing on Shazier's placement August 26 in Santa Clara Superior Court in San Jose.
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