Sexually violent offender recommended for conditional release to his Poway home – San Diego Union-Tribune

State hospital officials have recommended that a man identified as a sexually violent offender be placed in a Poway home, announced Tuesday.

Merle Wade Wakefield, 67, has been recommended for placement in a nursing home at 15720 Sycamore Canyon Road by the California Department of State Hospitals.

According to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, Wakefield was convicted of sex offenses in 1981 and 1990 and sentenced to prison.

A court hearing on the suitability of the Poway site is scheduled for August 9. Members of the public are typically allowed to submit comments to the court on the suitability of the site.

Wakefield is considered a sexually violent offender. This category includes people who have been convicted of sexually violent crimes and have been diagnosed with a mental disorder that increases the likelihood that the person will reoffend.

According to prosecutors, in 1981, when Wakefield was in his mid-20s, he was convicted of lewd acts with a minor under the age of 14 and sentenced to prison. In 1990, Wakefield was convicted of rape by force or fear and again sentenced to prison.

After serving their prison sentence, SVPs are treated in state hospitals, but can also apply to the court to continue treatment in outpatient facilities, where they are monitored by GPS, among other things.

Liberty Healthcare, which runs the state’s sex offender parole program, has said that not a single sex offender has reoffended in the program’s 21-year history. While some sex offenders have had their paroles terminated for violations of release conditions, Liberty officials said none of those violations were due to new sex offenses.

The Rancho Bernardo community faced the potential housing of a sexually violent offender in September 2021 when authorities recommended placing Douglas Badger in a home on Frondoso Drive in The Greens neighborhood.

Badger was convicted of multiple sexual assaults dating back to 1981 and had a history of attacking young male hitchhikers at gunpoint. His crimes included child molestation, kidnapping and forced oral sex, according to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.

He was released from prison in 1997 and spent most of the next twenty years in maximum security state hospitals, where he participated in a sex offender treatment program.

Rancho Bernardo and Poway residents joined forces to fight Badger’s placement in the family neighborhood where children lived in surrounding homes. Residents attended a packed town hall meeting where they voiced their opposition, signed petitions and learned how to legally communicate their concerns to the San Diego Superior Court judge who would approve the placement.

Residents also put up signs near the house, and within days the homeowners said they didn’t know who was going to move in and wanted out of the lease they had with Liberty Healthcare, which handled Badger’s placement. Once the lease was terminated, that meant another home would have to be found, according to authorities.

In 2021, state officials proposed placing Wakefield in a home in Borrego Springs on the fairway of the De Anza Country Club golf course. That proposed placement was later put on hold when Liberty Healthcare required him to complete additional treatment before being released from Coalinga State Hospital.

The August 9 hearing will be held at 9 a.m. at the San Diego Central Courthouse before Superior Court Judge Yvonne Campos. Public comments may also be submitted through July 22 to the SAFE Task Force, a regional law enforcement team that monitors and enforces sex offender registration laws in the county.

Comments may be submitted by email to [email protected], by phone at 858-583-7238, or by mail to SVP Release/SAFE Task Force, 9425 Chesapeake Drive, San Diego, 92123.