Two girls believed to be only 13 years old were allegedly raped by two convicted sex offenders wearing ankle bracelets at Motel 6 in El Cajon, part of a motel voucher program that provides temporary housing for the homeless.
In September, The Globe reported on the El Cajon, San Diego County Homeless Voucher Program: Cajon. ”
El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, El Cajon City Manager Graham Mitchell, and Police Chief Mike Moulton objected and said the county was “saturating El Cajon with homeless people and hotel vouchers” without prior notice or warning to the city. They contacted the county and asked them to distribute voucher-enabled homeless people throughout the county rather than sending the bulk of them to El Cajon. “We have the second highest poverty rate in the county,” City Manager Mitchell said. “We also have the most immigrants,” noting the special circumstances these groups face, as well as city and county dependency.
In September, the city sent letters to these motels saying they could be fined if they allowed homeless vouchers to account for more than 15% of their occupancy.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta stepped in and ordered city officials to cease and desist from their policy of placing 15% vouchers for the homeless. In its letter, the AG stated that it was discrimination and a fair housing issue. Specifically, the AG stated, “Discrimination based on source of income is a civil right.”
The Globe asked the question, “Are homeless transit residents now a protected class in California?”
Fast forward to today, according to Fox News:
Police arrested a pair of Californian sex offenders over the weekend after they allegedly confessed to raping an underage girl, videotaped part of the meeting and said they had attacked other girls in recent days, according to police in El Cajon.
Lawrence “Larry” Cantrell, 34, and Michael Inman, 70, are accused of raping a girl believed to be between 13 and 16 years old in bedroom 6 of Cantrell’s motel last week, where he stayed as part of a homeless voucher program . .
El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells told Fox News Digital that the two girls are believed to be only 13 years old.
This is exactly what the mayor, the city manager and the chief of police were so worried about when we talked in September. “City and police department say AG is out of line as it’s not about denying help to the homeless, but about a real major public safety issue with a surge in crime by homeless crossovers,” reports the Globe.
The Attorney General’s Office said in a September letter:
“The actions of the City cannot continue. The City’s actions constitute unlawful discrimination in direct violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act. Our office hereby requires the City to immediately (1) rescind warnings, (2) agree to refrain from issuing such notices in the future, (3) publicly state that hotels will not be subject to adverse action by the City for accepting such warnings. vouchers and (4) direct its law enforcement officials to immediately stop any unlawful harassment of hotel guests at participating hotels.”
Such an interesting choice of language: homeless transitional people are now “hotel guests” at participating California taxpayer-funded homeless hotels.
The El Cajon Police Department received so many calls to these motels that they arrested over 40 transit felons in four days with long lists of charges, outstanding warrants and drug dealers.
Chief Moulton said at the time that the increase in calls had a huge impact on the department. For context, he said they received 2,800 calls in 2013 about crimes and homeless incidents. It reached its peak in 2018 with 9,000 people. Since that time (2019-2021) they have been at the level of 7500 per year. This is a direct link to the passage of Proposals 47 and 57, Chief Moulton added.
“While the voucher program has accommodated up to 50% of homeless voucher recipients in El Cajon hotels, the city accounts for only 3% of the county’s population,” Wells said, Fox said.
“I am 100% sure that we are being punished for being conservative,” Wells said.
When the city sent letters to these motels informing them they could be fined if they allowed homeless vouchers to make up more than 15% of their occupancy, it prompted an immediate response from San Diego County Superintendent Nathan Fletcher, who challenged the mayor, city manager and Chief of Police. “Our county is making historic investments to support the homeless in our region and will not let the actions of the City of El Cajon push more people onto the streets. We will fight for what is right.” – Fletcher tweeted.
Fox reported:
Both men were placed in housing by People Assisting The Homeless, or PATH, a homeless service provider in San Diego, authorities said.
On Friday, a PATH employee called the police to report Cantrell’s “suspicious behavior”. Cantrell then allegedly confessed to child molestation and told officers that he had the video on his phone.
PATH placed Cantrell at the El Cajon 6 Motel about five to six days before the crime, police said. Prior to this, he had been kicked out of another hotel voucher program due to a “quarrel”.
Police said they arrested Inman at the Days Inn in San Diego, where he allegedly told them he knew the girl was underage and that he and Cantrell were victims of at least two other girls in El Cajon last week.
The El Cajon Police Department released the following information about the suspects:
Officers from the El Cajon Police Department responded to the motel and spoke to Cantrell, who confessed to having sexual contact with a girl he believed to be a minor. Cantrell told police that his friend, 70-year-old Michael Inman, a sex registrar he met through PATH while staying at the Days Inn on Ash Street in San Diego, brought in a young girl whom Cantrell believed minor. room. Cantrell asked the girl several times about her age because he thought she was underage. Cantrell told officers that the young girl claimed to be an adult, but he believed she was underage. After a short conversation, Cantrell raped and molested a minor. Afterwards, Cantrell and Inman had sexual intercourse with each other. Cantrell learned that
Inman had an explicit video of the minor from the motel room on his cell phone, so Cantrell sent the video from Inman’s phone to his cell phone. Cantrell gave his cell phone to the officers, and they confirmed that Cantrell had a sexually explicit video showing an underage woman with Inman. The officers seized Cantrell’s phone. Cantrell provided officers with identifying information for Inman.
Proposition 57, passed in 2016, allowed early release not only for non-violent offenders, but also for sex offenders and three strikers, which explains that Cantrell and Inman were released from prison.
El Cajon tried to enforce zoning rules that limit homeless accommodation in hotels to 25% of capacity, Wells said, and received a letter to end the ban from California Attorney General Robert Bonta.
Every day, millions of Californians worry about keeping a roof over their heads.
Recent actions by the city of El Cajon threaten to push some of San Diego County’s most vulnerable residents onto the street solely because of their source of income.
No more
— Rob Bonta (@RobBonta) September 25, 2022
“At this point, we had to kind of back off, and that’s when the voucher program kind of increased,” Wells said. “That’s when I said it was going to be bad. We have a lot of criminals in this group of people.”
Graham Mitchell, City Manager of El Cajon, commented on the recent crime:
“A few months ago, El Cajon officials raised concerns about the overuse of El Cajon motels for homeless vouchers. We have seen negative impacts on nearby areas as El Cajon has been turned into a regional dump. Our calls for concern were ignored. Even the State Attorney General’s Office has been used to prevent El Cajon from protecting its community. Over the past four months, a teenager has been shot in the head in a motel, and sex offenders have had sex with a teenager in another motel and recorded on video. Both of these and other tragedies involve housing the homeless in El Cajon motels with little or no supervision. Let’s hope that regional leaders and homeless relief agencies can see what the El Cajon community is seeing: over-concentration of homeless people in unsupervised motels is a bad formula.”
And now underage girls as young as 13 appear to have been raped by recidivist sex offenders.
What does AG Bonta say about this? Are Cantrell and Inman “among the most vulnerable residents of San Diego?”
Does San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, who insisted he would “fight for what’s right,” have anything to say about underage victims? Is San Diego “making a historic investment” by supporting homeless sex offenders?
The Globe sent requests for comment to Bonta and Fletcher’s offices. Right before publication, we received an email statement from Chuck Westerheide, San Diego County Public Affairs:
“The alleged crimes committed in this case are horrendous and we want to do everything we can to find the victims and help them. Crime against youth is of particular concern, and we are committed to maintaining public safety and holding accountable on behalf of victims of violent crime.
Our housing partners alerted law enforcement to alleged criminal activity that led to the arrests. We know that housing is an urgent need for many people in our community, including those involved in justice. We will continue to seek housing options for the homeless in San Diego County while addressing the root causes of criminal behavior.
The County is cooperating with law enforcement in this investigation.”
We will let you know when we get a response from the AG Bonta office.
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