A state-mandated committee tasked with consulting on where convicted sex offender Michael Cheek should live in Santa Cruz County did not identify any viable housing options at its meeting on Thursday, prolonging a process that has already gone on for about four years.
Cheek, 71, is a twice-convicted rapist who has been in custody since 1981, and at a Fresno County state hospital for the past 26 years. He was convicted of kidnapping a 21-year-old woman from Seacliff State Beach and raping her at gunpoint. He did the same thing to a 15-year-old girl in Lake County a year later after escaping custody.
Cheek was cleared by the state for conditional release in 2019. But his path to reintegrating into society has been a struggle. Liberty Healthcare Corporation, the state contractor tasked with trying to find Cheek a home and provide follow-up services, has so far been unsuccessful in doing so. Every proposed location, such as Butte and San Mateo counties, has been promptly shut down by pushback from community and law enforcement.
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