Judge denies motion to move sexually violent predator to Wilton

A Sacramento County judge has denied a motion to move a convicted sexually violent predator to a rural neighborhood in Wilton.

Dariel Shazier, 50, was at the center of a controversy that unfolded after law enforcement officials notified residents of La Clair Road in Wilton of Shazier’s potential placement there after living in Del Paso Heights since January 2020. A Santa Clara County judge placed Shazier in Sacramento County in 2019 despite his lack of ties to the area and protest from county officials and residents.

Residents of La Clair Road were notified before Christmas about the new move and were given until Dec. 30 make their concerns known to the judge in the case, Cindy Griswold, a long-time resident of the street, told The Bee.

“It’s a very family-oriented, quiet part of rural Sacramento County,” Griswold said. “...It just seems so inappropriate on so many levels.”

Shazier has an extensive history of molesting teenage boys. According to court documents, Shazier would gain the trust of teenage boys by offering to teach them karate, portraying himself as “Master Tang” and earning a “cult-like following” that enabled him to sexually abuse children.

He has been locked in state hospitals for nearly a decade after determinations by two juries that he was a sexually violent predator. He qualified for that designation as a result of two prior convictions of molesting teenage boys.

There are 12 children who live on La Clair Road, Griswold said, and the move would have put him within 175 yards of those families.

In a 2016 ruling, a judge said seven experts attested to Shazier still being mentally ill but able to be safely placed in a community with proper support, The Bee reported. His mental illness was not specified.

But in a 2010 trial, clinical psychologist Carolyn Murphy testified that his illness was paraphilia, an abnormal sexual desire characterized by violent and extreme activity.

In 2017, a proposed placement in Placer County was shot down after residents and public officials strongly opposed the move, saying that children lived throughout the area. The judge instead placed Shazier in Del Paso Heights.

Shazier is scheduled to appear in court again Feb. 10.