County Board of Supervisors · Tuesday, October 6, 2026, 9:00 AM · Item 21 · CONSENT AGENDA
County would file written opposition to placing Michael Cheek at Los Gatos address
In plain English
The California Department of State Hospitals has proposed placing Michael Cheek, a man a court has designated a Sexually Violent Predator, at 25237 Terrace Grove, Los Gatos, CA 95033 — a property that actually sits in unincorporated Santa Cruz County in the Summit area. A yes vote would direct the Board Chair, working with the Sheriff's Office and District Attorney's Office, to file written comments opposing that placement with the state and the Superior Court before an October 30, 2026 hearing, and to write to the state hospitals department and its contractor Liberty Healthcare asking that the site be withdrawn. The Board would also reaffirm its October 19, 2021 position opposing such placements in the county until state law gives counties veto power, and send a letter to state legislators asking for changes to the placement law.
Residents of the Summit area would live near the proposed site, which the report says is rural and mountainous with concerns about emergency response times, cell and broadband coverage, power shutoffs and winter road closures; it is also the fifth site proposed in the county for this one individual since 2021, each of which put a different neighborhood through months of uncertainty.
Key facts
- The state notified the Sheriff and District Attorney on September 21, 2026; the Superior Court hearing is October 30, 2026 at 1:30 p.m. before Judge Nancy De La Pena, Department 6, 701 Ocean Street #110, Santa Cruz.
- The state hospitals department asked that a consolidated packet of community agency comments reach it by October 8, 2026 — leaving 17 days from the notice.
- Cheek was convicted after an April 15, 1980 abduction and rape in Santa Cruz and a May 12, 1981 assault on a 15-year-old in Lake County; he was committed as a Sexually Violent Predator on August 13, 1997 and conditional release was ordered October 7, 2019.
- A prior Bonny Doon placement at 310 Wild Iris Lane was vacated by the Sixth District Court of Appeal on January 6, 2023 because a private school operated within a quarter mile; that site had no cell service and supervising staff about 65 miles away with an estimated 75-minute response.
- The recommended actions have no financial impact; residents can send comments to SVP@scdao.us or SVP Unit, c/o Santa Cruz District Attorney's Office, 701 Ocean St., Room 200, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.
Reasons to support
- The Summit site raises the same practical problems that led a court to vacate the Bonny Doon placement: long law enforcement response times, spotty cell and broadband coverage needed for GPS monitoring, PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs, and winter storm road closures on Summit Road.
- State law requires placement sites to consider victim profiles and proximity to places children gather, and the site is within the Loma Prieta Joint Union Elementary School District; Cheek's treatment team previously reported he is "more likely than not to engage in sexually violent criminal behavior in the future."
- The report argues the current system works for no one: five sites in this county and at least one outside it have been proposed and abandoned since 2021, while Cheek has waited over seven years since release was ordered, so the Legislature should fund regional transitional housing instead of leasing homes and motels one at a time.
Reasons to oppose or change it
- Senate Bill 1034 (Atkins, 2022) already gives the Sheriff, District Attorney and County Counsel seats on a state housing committee, and the decision rests with the Superior Court; opposing each site in turn has so far produced seven years of continued confinement for a man whose release a judge ordered in 2019 rather than a workable placement.
- The state's own December 2025 fact sheet, cited in the report, says no participant in the outpatient program has committed a sexual contact offense while enrolled, which cuts against the argument that supervised placement in this county poses an unacceptable risk.
- Asking the Legislature to give counties veto authority and to drop the rule that treats the county of arrest or prosecution as the county of domicile would shift the burden to some other community, since someone approved for conditional release still has to live somewhere.
Official wording
Direct the Board Chair, in coordination with the Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's Office, to prepare and submit written comments opposing the proposed placement of Michael Cheek at 25237 Terrace Grove, Los Gatos, CA 95033, and take related actions (Board of Supervisors - First District)
Summary written by claude-opus-5 from the agenda and the Staff Report. It can contain mistakes. The official documents govern.