Court Order To Move Convicted Rapist To Redwood City Hits Snag

REDWOOD CITY, CA — A forceful push by local law enforcement agencies to block the placement of a convicted rapist into a residential Peninsula community appears to have worked.

The property owner of a residence where Michael Thomas Cheek had been ordered to move after his release after four decades of incarceration on Tuesday morning withdrew their housing units for consideration of anyone in the state’s Conditional Release Program for Sexually Violent Predators, Redwood City police said.

The Redwood City Police Department and the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office led the organized mobilization against a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge's tentative order to move to 69-year-old to the Emerald Hills neighborhood in unincorporated Redwood City.

“The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, the Redwood City Police Department, and the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office appreciate the enthusiasm and commitment of our community partners to keeping our neighborhoods safe,” the agencies said in a joint statement Tuesday night.

“We would also like to remind our partners in the community to be respectful and considerate of all San Mateo County residents.”

The law enforcement agencies had been canvassing the Emerald Hills community, distributing flyers and urging the public to provide their input to the Santa Cruz County court regarding Cheek's potential release to their neighborhood.

A hearing on the Santa Cruz County order had been scheduled for March 1.

Cheek was serving 20-year sentence for a 1980 rape conviction of a 21-year-old woman in Santa Cruz County when he escaped a Contra Costa County jail and raped a 15-year-old girl at gunpoint in Lake County in 1981, according to a published report in the Santa Cruz Sentinel and court records.

Cheek was committed in 1997 to the Department of State Hospitals in Coalinga and in 2009 a jury determined him to be a Sexually Violent Predator.

Sheriff Carlos G. Bolanos and Redwood City Police Chief Dan Mulholland both expressed fervent opposition to Cheek’s placement in the Peninsula in a joint statement.

"Sheriff Bolanos and Chief Mulholland both strongly object to the tentative order allowing a Sexually Violent Predator to live in Redwood City," the statement said.

The flyer law enforcement officials distributed was posted on the Facebook group Redwood City Residents Say: "What?"