North Coast judge rejects convicted sexual predator’s relocation to Galt
Convicted sex predator Joshua Bryan Cooley will not be headed to Sacramento County after a North Coast judge Friday rejected the state’s request to house him outside Galt.
Retired Humboldt Superior Court Judge John T. Feeney turned down Cooley’s placement at the hour-long hearing in Eureka viewed via livestream by Galt residents and officials including Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli.
“It’s clear to the court that Mr. Cooley has no prior relationship to the Galt community. Humboldt is his county of domicile,” Feeney said. Cooley has extensive family in Humboldt County, Feeney added, saying any relocation should be limited to Cooley’s home county.
The Humboldt County man was imprisoned at 21 for the 2002 kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old girl. The hearing in Humboldt Superior Court was the latest attempt by the Department of State Hospitals to house Cooley after earlier attempts to place him in Humboldt, Tehama and San Diego counties were rejected.
Cooley was sentenced to four years, eight months in state prison for the 2002 kidnap-rape. At 27, he violated parole in 2007 by taking two 12-year-old girls and a 17-year-old girl to his Eureka home and supplying them with alcohol. Police found the teen unconscious and one of the 12-year-olds intoxicated.
Officers later tracked down Cooley by his monitoring device, according to court documents. Cooley served a year in custody before being declared a sexually violent predator and confined to Coalinga State Hospital.
Sacramento County authorities did not have a role in selecting the site. But Galt residents and city leaders, alarmed at the prospect of Cooley living along rural Harvey Road near schools, parks and their homes, lobbied local and state officials to keep Cooley out of their community.
“The evidence is clear that he is a high risk to reoffend in a predatory manner,” attorney David Rosenthal, representing the Galt-area residents, argued at the hearing. “This is a very bad placement of Mr. Cooley. There is no way this will be an appropriate property.”
Sacramento County deputy prosecutor Brian Morgan was in Eureka for the placement hearing. Morgan argued that Liberty Health, the firm contracted by the state to supervise sexually violent predators upon their release, couldn’t safely supervise Cooley at the Galt-area home, in part because of lengthy Sheriff’s Department response times to the home on the far edge of the county.
“Humboldt County is where his support system is located,” Morgan said. In Sacramento County, “there’s no clear sign that Mr. Cooley’s going to be successful in his release.”
But counsel Meagan O’Connell argued that, four years after Cooley’s Coalinga commitment had come to an end, the Humboldt court had to make a decision on where he would be housed. Cooley could be safely placed in Sacramento County, she said.
“These are extraordinary circumstances,” O’Connell said. “He’s been without a placement for four years. The court has rejected numerous viable placements. The lack of community ties is not compelling.”
Feeney was not convinced. He ordered Liberty Health to continue its search. A placement review hearing is scheduled Feb. 26 in Eureka.
Mike Alexander expressed relief after the decision. Alexander lives near the home where Cooley would have been housed and co-led a petition drive to convince officials to reconsider the proposed move.
“I’m ecstatic. I’m just happy we got the outcome we were looking for. I had high hopes that the judge would see our side,” Alexander said. “The community really rallied around this. We did not want that individual in our neighborhood.”
The drive, co-led by resident Barbara Greer, drew more than 3,000 signatures. Hundreds more emails and letters went to Galt and Sacramento County leaders and to Sacramento County District Attorney’s officials.
“I have grandchildren who spend time at our ranch. I felt our grandchildren would be in danger if this man were driveways away from us,” Greer said. “We didn’t label him a sexual predator. He labeled himself that.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 9:08 AM.
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