A judge approved a proposal yesterday to place a sexually violent predator scheduled to be released from a state mental hospital in a trailer outside the gates of an Otay Mesa prison by July 7.
Douglas Badger
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When Douglas Badger leaves Atascadero State Hospital, he will move to the site at 480 Alta Road, which officials say is far enough from homes and schools, but still allows him access to treatment providers.
San Diego Superior Court Judge David M. Gill said the proposed site was the only available option. Gill asked state officials to provide more details about Badger's treatment plan at a June 30 hearing.
“I don't share the opinion that we're using South Bay as a dumping ground,” Gill said, acknowledging community opposition.
He said the Alta Road location is the “only viable site.”
Badger, 63, will live in the same trailer – set up outside Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility – where the first sexually violent predator to be released in San Diego County, Matthew Hedge, was placed in November.
Hedge since has been returned to Atascadero for additional treatment, after state authorities discovered he had spoken to two teenage girls at a treatment center and violated other rules of his release.
Since May 1, a local law enforcement task force has received 60 responses from the public and a petition with 248 signatures opposing the proposal to place Badger in Otay Mesa.
None of the people who responded suggested an alternative site, prosecutors said.
Deputy District Attorney Kristen Spieler said her office understands the opposition, but “given the options, this seems to make the most sense.”
In December, Gill ruled that Badger had successfully completed a treatment program for criminals classified as sexually violent predators at Atascadero and is eligible for release under supervision.
State law requires that Badger, who has a history of sexually assaulting young male hitchhikers at gunpoint, be returned to the county where he committed his crimes.
Badger has been diagnosed as having a mental illness similar to schizophrenia, is an alcoholic and is a sexual sadist who derives pleasure from torturing and humiliating his victims, according to testimony at previous court hearings.
Given Badger's rare diagnosis, the District Attorney's Office has requested that he be provided an in-home health care worker to monitor him at least eight hours a day, seven days a week.
An official from Liberty Healthcare, the contractor hired by the state to monitor Badger, told the judge yesterday that the company has advertised the position and received some responses, but so far no one has been hired.
Badger's lawyer, Richard Gates, told the judge he was concerned about the slow progress toward Badger's release from the hospital. Outside the courtroom, Gates questioned why Liberty Healthcare officials had not yet begun conducting interviews.
Assemblyman Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, who represents the Otay Mesa area, attended the hearing and said he was upset by the judge's decision, particularly the provision for in-home workers to monitor Badger.
“That's the most idiotic, stupid thing I've ever heard,” Vargas said, repeatedly referring to such workers as Badger's “man servants.”
Dana Littlefield: (619) 542-4590; dana.littlefield@uniontrib.com
