A Los Angeles County supervisor urged her constituents to speak out after California announced a proposal to release a convicted serial rapist, nicknamed the “Pillowcase Rapist,” into a High Desert neighborhood.
“Our residents of Juniper Hills, Pearblossom and Antelope Valley have every right to express their concerns about the placement of this predator in their communities,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
The Department of State Hospitals proposed placing convicted rapist Christopher Evans Hubbart in a remote community near Devil’s Punchbowl, a state park about 15 miles southeast of Palmdale.
“I understand that the state conducts extensive research and review before proposing a site, but nothing can match the real-world perspective that only community members can provide,” Barger said.
In March 2023, a Santa Clara County court ruled that Hubbart was eligible for parole after spending the better part of the past 50 years in various California prisons for numerous rapes and sexual assaults.
In 1972, Hubbart was sentenced to a state hospital for a series of rapes in L.A. County. After seven years, Hubbart was released and transferred to the San Francisco Bay Areawhere he committed another series of sexual assaults, for which he was convicted in 1983.
In total, Hubbart admitted to sexually abusing 38 women between 1971 and 1982. He earned the dubious nickname because he muffled his victims’ screams with pillowcases. Authorities labeled him as sexually violent predator in 2000 and admitted him to a psychiatric hospital.
After 13 years, a judge ordered his release after treatment was completed and doctors deemed him fit to living in a community. In 2014, he moved to a small house in Palmdale, where he was forced to wear an ankle monitor, undergo therapy, take a polygraph test, and submit to random searches.
Another condition of his release was that he was not to watch any movies or online material that would arouse him. Hubbart was returned to custody after a judge revoked his parole in 2017.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office will explain Hubbart’s final parole hearing on September 4 at the Juniper Hills Community Center, located at 31401 106th Street East, Juniper Hills, CA 93543.
Residents can submit written comments to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office at svpcomments@da.lacounty.gov before the September 17 deadline.
The hearing to determine whether Hubbart’s proposed housing situation is appropriate will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 1 at the LA County Superior Court’s Hollywood courthouse.
