SAN JOSE
– The possible release of a convicted child molester who
underwent voluntary surgical castration into their Morgan Hill
neighborhood had neighbors in an uproar.
SAN JOSE – The possible release of a convicted child molester who underwent voluntary surgical castration into their Morgan Hill neighborhood had neighbors in an uproar. Weeks after these rumors were confirmed, a judge ruled this morning that Brian DeVries, 44, will be released to his father’s home in a rural area of Washington state.
DeVries will be released in 16 to 20 days to stay at his father’s residence for two weeks. Then, DeVries will move to a nearby home his father recently purchased.
The location was not released.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Robert Baines in today’s hearing ordered that DeVries be in his courtroom for a hearing July 25 to review details of the release.
For a time, the state Department of Mental Health had considered placing DeVries in a Morgan Hill home at 865 W. Main Ave., a neighborhood of schools, the library, several churches, daycare and youth centers and the YMCA.
DeVries was convicted of sexually molesting an 8-year-old boy in San Jose in 1994 and had been previously convicted in several other states, starting in 1978. He has finished an inmate treatment program resulting from the 1996 Sexually Violent Predator Act; in fact DeVries would be the first convict to complete the program and be released to the community for further supervision and treatment.
DeVries requested surgical castration that was performed last August and was deemed ready for release by the Atascadero State Hospital staff in February.
“He is not a danger to the community if treated,” Susan King, an attorney for the state Department of Mental health, has said.
Judge Baines said this morning that to keep DeVries in custody any longer would violate his constitutional rights.
DeVries’ attorney Brian Matthews has repeatedly told the judge that his client should be released.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that such convicted felons cannot be held indefinitely after the sentence is completed.
DeVries came to the attention of Morgan Hill residents on June 15, when a flyer appeared on doorsteps and made the rounds of one local church. The flyer claimed that DeVries would be leaving the hospital and moving to a house in Morgan Hill.
Neighbors were outraged and shared their displeasure and the flyers with police, City Hall and the media, none of which had been notified by the DMH that DeVries might land in their midst.
By Monday, June 16, after a day of phone calls to state officials, police, City Hall and The Morgan Hill Times discovered that it was indeed true that Morgan Hill was under consideration as a release site for DeVries. On June 18, dozens of neighbors packed Baines’ courtroom to hear his decision; Mayor Dennis Kennedy had sent the judge a letter objecting to Morgan Hill as having been targeted without notice.
Having discussed the matter with Matthews, King and, as a courtesy, with Morgan Hill City Attorney Helene Leichter, Baines determined that the DMH should widen its search beyond Santa Clara County to the entire state. He did not rule out Morgan Hill.
Nora Romero, spokeswoman for the Department of Mental Health, supervisors of the case, tried originally to diffuse Morgan Hill’s worries.
“Whatever location we settle on,” she said, “we wouldn’t be releasing him right in the middle of an area with schools.” Later Romero qualified the housing search.
• The residence must be at least one-quarter mile from any elementary school
• It must be more than 35 miles from a victim’s house or place of work
• It must be within walking distance from a bus stop
• The subject must be able to reach psychiatric treatment.
