A serial rapist who was released from a state psychiatric hospital in 2014 and placed in a home near Palmdale despite outcry from residents and elected officials, was taken into custody Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that Christopher Evans Hubbart, 65, who is known as the “Pillowcase Rapist,” had been taken into custody, but it was not immediately clear why.

An official with the California Department of State Hospitals declined to comment on the case.

Hubbart was released from Coalinga State Hospital in July 2014 and was assigned by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Gilbert Brown to live at a home in the 20300 block of East Avenue R.

Hubbart was designated a sexually violent predator in Santa Clara County in 1996. His lawyers argued in 2014 that Hubbart’s continuing detention violated his rights to due process, sparking a battle over where he should live.

Residents of the area where Hubbart was sent to live vehemently opposed the decision, as did county Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area.

The District Attorney’s Office tried unsuccessfully last year to have Hubbart’s release revoked, with District Attorney Jackie Lacey saying “this violent predator continues to pose a serious danger to our community.” A judge, however, rejected the request.

Hubbart was sent to Atascadero State Hospital in 1972 after the court deemed him a “mentally disordered sex offender.” Seven years later, doctors said he posed no threat and released him.

Over the next two years, he raped another 15 women in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to court documents. Hubbart was again imprisoned, then paroled in 1990.

After accosting a woman in Santa Clara County, he was sent back to prison and then to Coalinga State Hospital.

As a condition of his release, Hubbart was required to wear an ankle monitor and attend regular therapy sessions and make quarterly reports to a judge.

–City News Service 

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