SACRAMENTO — A Superior Court judge approved placement of a seventh "sexually violent predator" in Sacramento County Monday — albeit with 15 pages of terms and conditions on his release from a state mental hospital.
Steven Joseph Jones, 61, will move into a residence at 5050 Tyler Street in Foothill Farms after Judge Jack Sapunor cleared the placement before a handful of observers.
Sapunor also approved a bundle of restrictions on Jones' movement and behavior, listed over 15 pages and recommended by the Department of Mental Health. Among those conditions are GPS monitoring, required registration as a sex offender and prohibition of alcohol consumption, Sapunor said.
After a neighboring church expressed concern about Jones' placement, Sapunor also ordered that Jones stay away from that church. Lance Osborn, a minister at the Church of Christ on Tyler Street, said that condition gave him some peace of mind.
"We can still help him if that opportunity arises, and we can still keep in mind the safety of our constituents," he said.
Jones was first convicted of a sexual offense in 1987, when he was sentenced to six years in prison for lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14. Jones was out of prison in three years, however, and in 1991 again was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts on a child younger than 14 – this time four counts. While in prison, he was determined to have a mental disorder and entered the sexually violent predator treatment program. He has since been treated at state hospitals in Atascadero and Coalinga.
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