SAN DIEGO — A San Diego Superior Court decision to release a Sexually Violent Predator known as the "Bolder-Than-Most" rapist from a state hospital and into the community was overturned by an appeals court, according to an opinion released by the court Monday. The 4th District Court of Appeals cited concern over the judge who presided over the case and the possibility he incorrectly applied a legal standard in granting Alvin Quarles a petition for conditional release.
A three-justice panel took the matter under submission earlier this month after hearing arguments from prosecutors and Quarles lawyers. After hearings on the matter were held in 2018 and 2019, San Diego County Superior Court Judge David M. Gill decided to release 57-year-old Quarles to a home somewhere in San Diego County, where he would undergo treatment through a conditional release program.
Quarles was dubbed the "Bolder-Than-Most" rapist because of the way he attacked his victims, at knifepoint, sometimes forcing the women's husbands or boyfriends to watch. He pleaded guilty in 1989 to committing more than a dozen sexual assaults in the mid-to-late 1980s and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
In 2014, Quarles was committed to a state hospital as a Sexually Violent Predator or SVP, a designation for those convicted of sexually violent offenses and diagnosed with a mental disorder that makes them a danger to the public.
Judge Gill’s ruling last year to release Quarles followed a series of closed-door hearings involving testimony from psychiatrists and other experts.
Earlier this month, Deputy District Attorney Samantha Begovich told the appeals court panel that Gill had misapplied the law regarding the release of SVPs.
"From day one, there was a misperception as to what the legal requirements are.. and those misperceptions had a cascading effect throughout the proceedings," Begovich said.
Begovich said Gill ruled under the idea that Quarles must be released to the "least restrictive setting" possible to continue his treatment. The prosecutor argued not only was that untrue, but that Quarles had also not proven he was fit for release.
San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob has spoken out against Quarles' release in the past. On Monday she tweeted about the overturning of his release saying in part "we must continue to fight the placement of sexually violent predators into our communities."
Quarles' attorney, Euketa Oliver, argued that Gill did not make his decision hastily, and that it would have been the easy choice in the wake of public pressure to deny Quarles' petition for conditional release. Oliver argued the conditional housing program provided security measures to safeguard the public and cited a zero percent recidivism rate for offenders entering the conditional release -- or CONREP -- program.
In overturning the previous ruling, the appeals court panel indicated that they were passing no opinion on if Quarles should be conditionally released if he chooses to file another petition.
In September 2016, Quarles petitioned the court to be granted release through the Conditional Release Program for sex offenders. At one time, he was to be released to a home in Jacumba Hot Springs, but the agreement to rent the residence fell through.
