Congressman Doug LaMalfa and Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher have issued a fiery challenge to the Santa Cruz County Superior Court. They are calling on the court to reject the proposed placement of Michael Cheek, a notorious sexually violent predator, in the Town of Paradise.
According to California state law, offenders like Cheek must be placed in their last county of residence or a county where they have family, residential or employment ties. Cheek, who resides in Santa Cruz County, has no such connections in Butte County, where Paradise is located.
“Our community is not a playground for dangerous predators like Cheek. He poses a grave risk to the people of Paradise and Butte County,” Congressman LaMalfa declared. “There is absolutely no reason to place him over 400 miles from his legal place of residence except as a result of misguided urban policies that are causing havoc in rural areas. This region is still recovering from the devastating wildfires and cannot bear the burden of a violent sexual predator being forced upon it.”
Assemblyman Gallagher echoed this sentiment, saying, “The people of Paradise have already suffered enough. We will not allow an out-of-county judge to use our town as a dumping ground for dangerous sex offenders.”
Cheek’s criminal record is appalling. He was first convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman at gunpoint in Santa Cruz in 1980. He later escaped from custody and kidnapped a 15-year-old girl in Lake County, whom he also raped at gunpoint. When he was due to be released in 1997, he was declared a sexually violent predator and confined to a state hospital.
Despite strong objections from local law enforcement, concerned residents and elected officials, the Department of State Hospitals and its contractor, Liberty Healthcare Corp., have been attempting to place Cheek in Butte County since 2020. The proposed home in Paradise for Cheek is located less than two miles from an elementary school and two churches and only 150 feet from a community bike path used by children and families.
The Paradise Police department has organized a town hall meeting today to address the issue.
