Sex offender moves out after protest
Deepa Bharath
COSTA MESA -- After neighbors protested in front of his apartment
complex Sunday, a registered sex offender “voluntarily moved out” of his
home at the Newport Senior Village, a property manager said Monday.
Melanie Lucie, manager of the complex on 21st Street and Newport
Boulevard, said Grayling Lang Mitchell, 41, left with his 70-year-old
wife Monday after meeting with property management officials. The couple
had moved into the complex in October.
“After we spoke with him, he volunteered to move out,” Lucie said.
Residents of the area said they were delighted that a “potentially
dangerous sex offender” is no longer living in their neighborhood.
“I’m very happy at the quick response,” said Norma McClary, who
organized Sunday’s protest. “This is a beautiful neighborhood and we’d
like it to stay that way.”
McClary said she and other residents were ready to stage another
demonstration Saturday morning.
“We just want him out of here,” she said. “He lost the right to live
in a nice area like this the moment he committed those horrible crimes.”
To warn residents about Mitchell, Costa Mesa police circulated fliers
last Thursday -- an action authorized under Megan’s Law, which went into
effect three years ago to better inform the public about the presence of
high-risk sex offenders.
Megan’s Law requires those who have been convicted of dangerous sex
crimes to register with local law enforcement agencies. It also allows
their names and photographs to be made public.
According to the police flier, Mitchell has been convicted of rape by
force, sodomy with force and oral copulation with force.
Lucie said the property management company did not know about
Mitchell’s criminal record “until the fliers were tossed out.”
“He was obviously able to live in our property because of his wife,”
she said. Newport Senior Village, an affordable housing complex,
accommodates only those 62 years and older, and their families.
Lucie added that her company did not threaten to evict Mitchell.
“According to state law, we can’t evict someone without proper cause,”
she said. “We can’t throw them out because of a prior criminal record.
They could take us to court for that.”
Mitchell is not the first high-risk sex offender to draw protests from
Costa Mesa residents. Two years ago, Chris Decker, who was convicted of
rape in 1977, was given an eviction notice by his landlord after police
circulated fliers to residents in his building.
Decker filed a lawsuit against the property owner, demanding $1
million in damages. But a Superior Court judge upheld the eviction.
Costa Mesa Police Lt. Ron Smith said Megan’s Law separates sex
offenders into three categories: high-risk, who are repeat offenders
involved in violent crimes; serious, who may be one-time offenders whose
offense may or may not involve violence; and others, who may have been
arrested for possession of pornography or indecent exposure.
Police can distribute information about high-risk offenders to any
citizen, but information about serious offenders can be released only to
those in the immediate area, Smith said.
Information about those falling under the “other” category is not
available to the public, he said.
About 160 registered sex offenders live in Costa Mesa. Half of them
are serious offenders, authorities said. Only one -- Mitchell -- was
listed as a high-risk offender.
Smith said the police department “prefers to err on the side of giving
out information than withholding it.”
“We passed out the fliers so people could use the information to
protect themselves and their children,” he said. “We felt it was best to
put it out there instead of keep it to ourselves till somebody became a
victim.”
FYI
To receive information through Megan’s Law, call (714) 754-5039 to
make an appointment with a Costa Mesa police officer. On Tuesdays and
Thursdays the department allows citizens to view sex offender
information. Searches can be made by zip codes or by last names. The data
is stored on a disk that is updated every month by the California
Department of Justice.
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