Fairfield Residents Upset Judge Continued Case With No Decision On Sex Offender Status
FAIRFIELD (CBS13) — A Fairfield community will have to wait to learn whether a high-risk violent sexual predator will be allowed to move into their neighborhood after a judge continued the case on Friday.
Many in the courtroom were outraged by the decision, including one resident who says her family has already been victimized by a sexual predator.
Cheri Turpen says Fraisure Smith's violent sexual predator case hits too close to home.
"It's re-traumatizing for me. I have not been able to sleep, not been able to eat," she said.
She lives on Willotta Drive and is concerned Smith, or any convicted sexual predator could victimize her family again.
Turpen says her sister was the victim of Michael Ross, known in Connecticut as the Roadside Strangler. Ross admitted to killing and raping eight women in the 1980s. Before his execution in 2013, he openly described their horrific deaths in a documentary.
Turpen says during that crime spree, her sister survived Ross' attack.
"My sister was 26 when he attacked her," she said. "Like Fraisure Smith, he stalked young women 14 to 26 years old."
But she says her quiet life is disrupted by placing Smith or any sex offender on her block. She'll be torn between staying or moving.
"I've lived in Willotta a long time. I have a lot of family there. It would be a gut-wrenching decision," she said.
Neighbors say if a sex offender is allowed to stay in their community, they will consider filing a lawsuit.
The house Smith would move into on Willotta Drive boasts four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a fire pit and a pool. The 3,000-square-foot home rents for more than $3,000 a month.
The California Department of State hospitals told CBS13 that 30 patients like Smith have been granted conditional release since the program began in 1996, and not a single one has reoffended. The monitoring program is the most intensive California has.
According to Smith's lawyer, his client had a deal for conditional release, which requires strict conditions including GPS monitoring. That happened in late 2013. It's taken this long to find a place that meets state law governing how close sex offenders can live to schools.
