UPDATE: Plans are to place him in a neighborhood near Oakley by December.
OAKLEY (KRON) — Plans are on-hold to move a convicted sexually violent child sex predator into a rural Contra Costa County Community.
Fifty-one-year-old Robert Bates was in court Friday, but a judge postponed the decision on whether or not to allow him to move into a home near Oakley.
One thing neighbors and county leaders can agree on is that Bates has served his time and should be allowed to stay somewhere — just not here. He is currently being housed at a state hospital.
But the Department of State Hospitals wants to place him into a blue house on Dutch Slough Road in unincorporated Contra Costa County near Oakley. For a second time this month, Contra Costa County judge Penny Scanlon postponed her decision on this matter. The district attorney’s office said she told the court she wants more time to be able to visit the community at the center of all of this herself, so she could get a feel for just how rural it is and who this move would affect.
Local law enforcement and several county leaders have publicly opposed the move, and so has Oakley’s Vice Mayor Kevin Romick, who said Bates would be too close to children.
In the 90s, Bates was convicted multiple times on child molestation charges. His victims were young boys.
He is due back in court next Friday when a decision could be made.