Keeping tabs on the county's known sex offenders is no easy task. People change jobs and addresses without notice. Some offenders fail to register with the Police and Sheriff's departments.
People lie.
But even when they are telling the truth, unforeseen circumstances can scatter some sex offenders to the wind, leaving law enforcement officials with the task of tracking them down.
Few people understand that better than the agents and officers who work with the San Diego Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Task Force, or SAFE, a multiagency group that monitors registered sex offenders.
A case in point: Authorities visited an auto repair shop in the Midway District one recent afternoon to verify that a high-risk sex offender was employed there.
Someone on the property told an agent that the man had gotten into a spat with his employers that morning. Apparently, they discovered that the man was a felon, a fact they said he didn't disclose on his job application.
"He got fired three hours ago," Special Agent Fernando Huerta told his colleagues.
Members of the SAFE task force use this and other types of information to update California's Megan's Law database, which is administered by the state Department of Justice and provides certain information on the whereabouts of sex offenders via the Internet.
The task force – made up of officers and agents from the state Department of Justice, county Probation Department, District Attorney's Office and San Diego Police and Sheriff's departments – makes routine checks of the offenders' homes and workplaces, making sure the information that the offenders reported is up-to-date.
"The public demands that that database be accurate, and we're the arm that can provide validity to it," said Ernesto Limon, a Department of Justice special agent supervisor on the task force.
"It's not enough just to put it on the Internet. Most of that relies on the sex offender being honest."
Limon said roughly a dozen task force agents and officers keep track of the 3,800 registered sex offenders in San Diego County. About 40 of those offenders are classified by the state as "high-risk" and five are considered "sexually violent predators," a designation reserved for the worst of the worst.
Possibly joining that rank will be Matthew Hedge, 42, who was imprisoned after pleading guilty in 1989 to molesting two boys and two girls. After serving his sentence, Hedge underwent years of therapy at Atascadero State Hospital. Now that he has completed his treatment and a judge has determined him eligible for release, state law requires that he return to the county where he committed his crimes.
Last month, authorities with the state Department of Mental Health recommended housing Hedge on state property at 480 Alta Road outside the locked gates of the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa. The property is more than six miles from the nearest school and more than three miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
A hearing has been scheduled today in San Diego Superior Court to discuss the proposed placement.
A separate hearing is scheduled for today for Douglas Badger, 62, another sexually violent predator who has completed his prison sentence and his subsequent treatment at Atascadero. A proposal to place Badger in a halfway house in San Diego's College Area neighborhood drew opposition from the public and the plan was eventually dropped.
Badger has a history of kidnapping and sexually assaulting young male hitchhikers at gunpoint. He admitted to crimes against 20 victims.
In April, state officials recommended placing Badger and Hedge on private property on Alta Road in Otay Mesa. The owner of that property later retracted his offer to house the men.
Since then, a judge has postponed Badger's release from Atascaderoafter learning that the psychologist who treated him had a romantic relationship with another patient under her care. The psychologist was not accused of having an inappropriate relationship with Badger.
Since December, news of Hedge's impending release has fueled the debate as to where sex offenders like Hedge should be housed once they leave a state hospital, and whether someone who fits such a category should be released at all.
"It is unfathomable to me that the state is releasing Mr. Hedge, or any sexually violent predator, into the community," county Supervisor Greg Cox has said. "I firmly believe that the appropriate place for all sexually violent predators is behind bars."
Many other local politicians have agreed with that sentiment but say that because the law allows Hedge to be released, the prison property is the only suitable option.
Limon noted that Hedge likely would have to comply with a number of requirements upon his release, including lie-detector tests, surveillance and satellite monitoring, which would allow authorities to pinpoint his whereabouts on a computer screen day or night.
He said Hedge also might have to submit a calendar to authorities outlining his appointments for each week.
Limon, who often makes presentations about the task force to community groups and city councils, explained that people often are frustrated to learn that police can't force a sex offender out of their neighborhood. He said he often reminds people that not every sex offender is placed under the same court-mandated requirements, such as staying away from playgrounds and schools.
"I wouldn't want to live next to a sex offender if I had small children, so I can sympathize with them," Limon said of the angry residents he has encountered.
"Sometimes they misconstrue the badge as blanket authority to do anything."
The task force does make arrests when the agents and officers learn that a sex offender has violated the terms of probation or otherwise broken the law.
On a recent visit to a North Park furniture store, task force agents interviewed a sex offender working there who said he likely would fail a drug test he took the day before. The man told a probation officer he had been out partying when someone slipped a narcotic into his drink.
"How he knows that, I'm not sure," Limon said, with a quick laugh. "Once we get the results of his urine test, he'll probably be arrested."
Dana Littlefield: (619) 542-4590; dana.littlefield@uniontrib.com
