Convicted Bay Area Serial Rapist To Be Freed By Year's End
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A convicted serial rapist's scheduled release from a state prison hospital in Los Angeles County has stirred up controversy.
A Santa Clara County judge has ruled that Christopher Evans Hubbart, who was convicted in two separate trials decades ago for committing 34 rapes, 15 of them in the Bay Area, should be conditionally released by the end of the year.
In 1972, Hubbart was first sent to prison for a string of violent rapes in Southern California that occurred in Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley.
He was released in 1979 and moved to the Bay Area. In 1983, he was back behind bars after he was found guilty of committing more rapes, some of them in San Jose.
In 1990, he was released on parole again.
Every time Hubbart was released, he was quickly recommitted to prison for breaking parole, allegedly holding a hostage in one instance and making threats.
State officials then said he had a severe mental disorder that required institutional treatment.
Tony Bell, the communications director for Los Angeles Supervisor Michael Antonovich, said Hubbart has been held in custody beyond his original sentences because of his mental issues.
"He has failed a psychological evaluation time after time. Apparently they're an annual evaluation. Evidently he's passed the latest psych evaluation," said Bell.
Bell, however, said releasing Hubbart would be a huge mistake.
"When you have a violent, mentally ill sexual predator and they want to release him into our communities, we think that's indicative of a broken criminal justice system," said Bell.
Hubbart is expected to be set free in November.
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