News

'Pillowcase' Rapist Released into Cali Suburb

by Nuzha Nuseibeh

In grim news for residents of Palmdale, the so-called 'Pillowcase Rapist' has been freed from a state mental hospital and allowed to live in the small Southern California town. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Gilbert Brown ordered the release on Friday, in spite of hundreds protesting the move via mail and on social media. The sexual offender has admitted to sexually assaulting 40 women between 1971 and 1982, though he's thought to have raped a number closer to 100.

Sixty-three-year-old Christopher Evans Hubbart spent 16 years in jail for his crimes after being arrested in 1983. He was let out on parole in 1990, but was arrested two months later, having assaulted someone else on the very day of his release, and put behind bars again until 1996. He was then sent to a state mental hospital, where just recently officials decided he was fit for release — on Friday, Judge Brown ordered the former sex offender to be let go by July 7.

As sexual offenders aren't allowed to live within 2,000 feet of schools and parks, he has been allowed to rent a condo near Palmdale, roughly 45 miles from downtown Los Angeles. There, Hubbart will have to wear a full-time GPS monitor on his ankle, and for six months after he is released, a state contractor will accompany Hubbart when he's in public. He'll also go to visit a therapist twice a week.

In spite of these constraints, local residents and congressmen have expressed their outrage at the fact that a man who has raped literally dozens of women will be allowed into their community. On Twitter, the hashtag #pillowcaserapist was used to draw attention to the release, with locals conveying their fury at the judge's ruling. “Mr. Hubbart would present a clear and present danger to his neighbors, and would be an instant target for vigilantes,” State Assemblyman Steve Fox, a Democrat who represents the Palmdale area, said in a statement.

Said Sheriff John L. Scott in a statement:

I cannot overstate my objection to Christopher Hubbart’s placement in the greater Lancaster community. He is the most prolific and violent rapist I have encountered in 45 years of California law enforcement. He has been declared a mentally disordered and extremely dangerous violent sex offender and his presence in the Lancaster community will strike fear in nearly all of its residents.

"We will do everything within our authority to protect the residents of Los Angeles County from this dangerous predator,"said District Attorney Jackie Lacey.

Earlier this week, a judge in Indiana decided that a man convicted of drugging, raping and filming his then-wife for years wouldn't go to jail. Not only that, but the judge decided that the wife should forgive — yes, forgive — her husband. This month, a Dallas County judge was forced to recuse herself from a case after she told the rape victim that she “wasn’t the victim she claimed to be.”