Sex offender to stay in treatment program

Greg Risling

COSTA MESA -- A convicted sex offender who caused an uproar in a Mesa

North neighborhood earlier this year when he wrote an intimate letter

about a young boy will spend another six months in a treatment program.

Cary Jay Smith, 39, will return to a hospital where he will receive

intensive psychiatric treatment. Smith had received six months of

treatment prior to his Tuesday court hearing.

It is likely that once Smith completes his treatment, he could be

released.

Mesa North neighbors became concerned when it was discovered Smith had

written a letter to a 7-year-old boy, where he allegedly fantasized about

having sex with the child.

Smith’s psychologist was alarmed by his patient’s fantasies and forwarded

the letters to authorities. Police never arrested Smith, stating they

couldn’t do so because the threats in the letter were never verbalized to

the victim. The letter was never mailed.

Smith lives in Santa Ana, but visited his parents regularly, who live

near Paularino Elementary School.

Parents in the neighborhood were notified about Smith’s behavior by

fliers distributed by police. More than 600 fliers were posted throughout

the neighborhood, some of which were torn down by someone in May.

Smith was convicted in 1983 on child molestation charges. He is listed as

a “serious sex offender” through the publicly disclosed Megan’s Law.

Smith’s stepdaughter also told authorities she was molested by Smith on a

weekly basis for two years when he lived with her mother. Charges were

never filed by the Orange County district attorney’s office.