Public notice begins for Santa Cruz County housing site for sexually violent predator
SANTA CRUZ — Public notice has begun for housing a 72-year-old sexually violent predator in Aptos, about a mile from Seacliff State Beach.
Earlier this month, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge ordered state officials to publicly release the address of a home they are proposing to house Michael Cheek, a twice-convicted rapist recommended for supervised community release after serving a combined 43 years of prison and mental health treatment.
Department of State Hospitals contractor Liberty Healthcare Corp. first reported identifying the housing location on a private road off Spreckles Drive in May after combing through upwards of 4,000 potential housing sites. A housing committee consisting of representatives from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office, Santa Cruz Public Defender’s Office, Santa Cruz County Counsel and the state had been meeting on Cheek’s placement at least since July 2023.
The most recent effort to place Cheek at a home in rural Bonny Doon, as well as prior proposals for San Mateo, San Benito and Contra Costa counties, faced public opposition and ultimately were scuttled. While Judge Syda Cogliati found the San Lorenzo Valley rental appropriate in a November 2021 ruling, the site placement order was overturned in January 2023 at the appellate level due to the formation of a home school near the proposed home. At the time, Liberty officials offered to install an automatic generator, a “GPS dome” preventing Cheek from traveling more than 150 feet from the home, security fencing, an on-site security guard and four property surveillance cameras in response to neighborhood concerns.
The Sexually Violent Predator Law is civil, not criminal law, allowing for treatment and rehabilitation versus punishment with a goal of safe community re-entry, according to a Department of State Hospitals fact sheet on the release program.
Cheek’s classification as a sexually violent predator and connection to Santa Cruz County stemmed from his gunpoint kidnapping and rape of a 21-year-old Los Gatos woman from Seabright Beach, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Afterward, Cheek temporarily escaped from a Contra Costa County jail facility where he had been transferred to face automobile theft-related charges. While a fugitive, Cheek raped a 15-year-old girl in Lake County, a crime for which he was later recaptured and convicted.
Cheek served out his prison sentence from 1981 through 1997. Then, Cheek waived his right to a trial seeking an unsupervised release when he told the judge he wanted to be sent to a mental hospital for treatment. The court system deemed him to be a “sexually violent predator” under a then-new state law. Those who complete their prison terms and qualify as violent offenders at risk of reoffending under parole due to a diagnosed mental condition may then be transferred to psychiatric care. In coming years, juries found Cheek unprepared to return to society, returning him to the state hospital for continued rehabilitation until Oct. 7, 2019, when Judge Stephen Siegel granted Cheek a conditional release to begin supervised outpatient treatment upon recommendation from the facility.
The Santa Cruz County Superior Court is accepting comments on the matter through Sept. 24 by email at criminalinfo@santacruzcourt.org or mailed to the Superior Court at 701 Ocean St., Santa Cruz, CA, 95060. A placement recommendation hearing is set for 1:30 p.m., Oct. 18 in Department 6, where presiding Judge Nancy de la Peña said she will not accept public comment.
Editor’s note: This article has been clarified to describe what beach Cheek’s proposed new home will be located near.