Release of 'Pillowcase Rapist' to LA County blasted by prosecutor after Bay Area court ruling
A convicted serial rapist who authorities say has admitted to raping and assaulting about 40 women is being released to Los Angeles County — over the objection of the county's prosecutor and years after another release spurred community outrage.
Christopher Hubbart, 63, was convicted in 1973, 1983 and 1990 for a series of rapes and other sex crimes in LA and Santa Clara counties. He has been dubbed by prosecutors "the pillowcase rapist" as he would use a pillowcase to muffle the screams of his victims. For 50 years, legal wrangling over his convictions has led to him being in and out of state mental hospitals and prisons.
In 2014, he was freed and sent to a neighborhood in LA County's Antelope Valley, the same area where he is now expected to move. A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge granted his conditional release in March 2023, and now, the Bay Area court has ruled that LA County is his permanent home and where can legally live following his release.
But that decision was blasted by LA County District Attorney George Gascón on Wednesday, when the prosecutor announced his release.
"Continuing to release sexually violent predators into underserved communities like the Antelope Valley is both irresponsible and unjust," Gascón said in a statement.
The prosecutor said there would be community hearings later Wednesday where people can voice their concerns.
"Quite frankly, I find this to be outrageous," Gascón said in an interview. "This is the third time, in the last three years, that we have outside courts relocating sexually violent predators into LA County — specifically in the Antelope Valley."
"We have opposed this is in the past, and we will oppose this again," he said. "As far as we can tell, Mr. Hubbart has no connections to LA County."
"We do not believe this is fair," Gascón said.
Just a day earlier, LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger urged residents of the High Desert neighborhood where Hubbart is being released to speak up and voice their concerns.
"I stand by this community's calls on the Los Angeles Superior Court and the Department of State Hospitals to find a different setting and pledge my full support. We cannot allow our rural communities in the Antelope Valley to be magnets for housing sexually violent predators. That's simply unacceptable," Barger said in a statement released on Wednesday.
Hubbart was born and raised in LA County and has lived in other parts of California.
Convictions going back to the 1970s
Authorities have said Hubbart has admitted to raping around 40 women between 1971 and 1982.
Following his first conviction in the early 1970s, in Los Angeles, he was deemed a "mentally disordered sex offender" by a court and sent to Atascadero State Hospital. In 1979, doctors released him after determining he posed no further threat. Over the next two years, prosecutors allege in court documents, he raped another 15 women in the San Francisco Bay Area.
He was imprisoned following another conviction in 1983. In 1990, he was paroled before he was once again imprisoned in connection with another sex crime conviction. That prison sentence ended in 1996.
Four years later, in 2000, he was committed to the Department of State Hospitals after Santa Clara County prosecutors sought to have him committed under the Sexually Violent Predator Act — legislation that went into effect in 1996 as a law intended to rehabilitate sex offenders so they can re-enter communities.
In 2014, he was released from Coalinga State Hospital to a home in the Antelope Valley — the same part of Southern California where he will soon be living. Just as with his current release, the county's prosecutor at the time criticized the court's decision while people living in the LA County community and local politicians also spoke out.
"His past behavior is not a one-time occurrence where he made a mistake," LA County Supervisor Michael Antonovich said when a judge decided in 2013 that Hubbart could potentially live in Lake Los Angeles.
"We're talking over and over again," Antonovich said. "It's an outrage, whether he's placed in Lake Los Angeles, in Claremont or any of these areas where we have children."
His last release and move to LA County
On the afternoon of July 9, 2014, Hubbart was dropped off at a home near Palmdale. At the time, a local group called the Ladies of Lake LA was fighting his move to the area. Cheryl Holbrook, one of the members, said she was concerned as a survivor herself.
"It scares the hell out of me," Holbrook said. "When we saw him coming down the road, I literally got the shakes. I wanted to cry. He's going to reoffend, he's going to attack somebody again, and he's going to take somebody's life."
As part of his release, Hubbart was required to continue treatment, adhere to a curfew, face random searches and wear a GPS ankle bracelet. A year after he was freed, law enforcement officials accused him of violating the terms of his release by allowing his ankle monitor to run low on battery.
However, Santa Clara County Judge Richard Loftus ruled that he was not "a danger to the health and safety of others." The judge wrote that Hubbart hadn't had any more battery problems since or any other breaches of the terms of his release.
But within the next few years, by 2017, Hubbart was back in a state mental hospital after violating the terms of his release.
Gascón announced Wednesday that Hubbart was being released to LA County after the California Department of State Hospitals proposed having him housed in a remote community near Devil's Punchbowl, which is a state park about 16 miles from Palmdale.
Prosecutors said a hearing to determine his placement will be held Oct. 1 at the Hollywood Courthouse.
