Dangerous Sex Offender Now In City Of Orange, Police Say

ORANGE, CA — A dangerous sex offender, recently released from a state mental hospital, has taken up residence in the Orange, police say.

Earlier this week, the Orange County District Attorney's Office alerted the public that Cary Jay Smith, a convicted sex offender, was released after spending 20 years in a state mental hospital.

In 2002, prosecutors attempted to charge Smith with sexual assaults on a 13-year-old, but the case was thrown out due to the statute of limitations, Spitzer said. Smith was committed to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino in 1999 on a psychological hold when his wife gave a psychiatrist a letter her husband wrote that described sex acts he fantasized about on a 7-year-old boy in his neighborhood in Costa Mesa, according to prosecutors.

The state kept him locked up in a state hospital under a civil commitment that concluded he was a danger to children. Under that law, he had the opportunity to seek release in a trial every six months. During the hearings, he has testified that he continues to fantasize about sexually assaulting and killing young boys, prosecutors said.

"He calls himself Mr. RTK," which stands for Rape, Torture, Kill, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said on Tuesday. "That's what I think has kept him in. He says, 'If you don't cut off my penis and hands, I will molest again.' "

Though Spitzer says that his office has no real connection to the case since it was a civil commitment, but wanted to warn the public about the potential danger.

"It's just really upsetting and aggravating to me that one of the governor's departments released a guy who is such an aberration and outlier and it doesn't advise the public," Spitzer said.

"That's crazy to me. So the only thing I can do under the law is to warn people and get his picture out there and build awareness of him, but I can't do much else."

It was the county counsel's office that had the authority to object to Smith's release, but it was not notified this time, and the hold on him expired on Saturday, Steel and Spitzer said in their letter to Gov. Newsom.

The OCDA's office has been in touch with the state Attorney General's Office to determine why the sex offender registration requirement was lifted and whether it can be reinstated.

According to both the District Attorney's Office and the Orange Police Department, Gov. Newsom's office has not yet intervened to reinstate a requirement that Smith register as a sex offender.

"Smith is not on probation or parole, and his requirement to register as a sex offender for life was removed by the state of California in 2005 for reasons that remain unclear," Sgt. Phil McMullin reported.

Orange Police Department was made aware of Smith's living situation on Friday.

"He has checked into an Adult Residential Facility in the area of Tustin Street and Chapman Avenue," McMullin says.

He was sent to the facility in the direction of the state, the Orange County Health Care Agency, according to the city of Orange. Police have provided the house administrator with the OCDA's press release, though the facility has accepted Smith as a resident of the facility.

Orange Police will continue surveillance on Smith, they say.

"We are committed to public safety and will do everything we can to have Cary Smith relocated," McMullin says.

The public has been advised to not come into contact with Smith, or attempt to apprehend him, though OCDA considers him a danger to others.