Rancho Bernardo neighbors are keeping up the fight against the conditional release of sexually violent predator Douglas Badger into their neighborhood, but they have help from a community group that inspired a movement.
The founders of Your Voice Has Power says since the group was organized in 2018, they’ve either physically demonstrated for and/or consulted a dozen communities facing the conditional release of sexually violent predators.
“We learned that the community needs to know what is going on and needs to speak up,” group organizer and assault survivor Mary Taylor said.
Taylor was sexually assaulted in 1988 by convicted serial rapist Alvin Quarles, the so-called “Bolder Than Most Rapist.”
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Taylor said fighting Quarles’ release in 2019 was like reliving her assault all over again.
“Oh my God. It’s like being assaulted all over again. it felt exactly the same,” she said.
Your Voice Has Power is among a number of groups now embroiled in the effort to stop the release of Douglas Badger in Rancho Bernardo. They already successfully helped stop Badger from being placed in the Mount Helix community.
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‘The key to survival is regaining your power. The courts make it very, very hard,” Taylor said.
The California Department of State Hospitals said designated SVP’s who have been released have a community safety team of seven-plus people assigned to them. Also, they are monitored 10 different ways, including by GPS and random property searches.
YVHP co-founder Terri Larson, Taylor’s close friend and neighbor for over 25 years, said the key for communities is staying informed.
“This is happening, and I think people watch it and they don’t realize their community can be next,” she said. “Now it is happening.”
Taylor said it’s gratifying to see how the efforts of a handful of people just three years ago have opened the eyes of so many more today.
“It could be our neighborhood next. It could be your neighborhood next. If we don’t stand together as neighbors in the community then this will keep on happening,” Taylor said.
Quarles remains in the care of the state hospital system. As for Badger, a judge has given the Rancho Bernardo community between Sept. 30 and Oct. 14 to submit their comments.
NBC 7 asked the Department of State Hospitals about the annual cost of housing Badger in Rancho Bernardo but did not answer. We do know that Liberty Healthcare is contracted to supervise the release, and monitor and treat California's sexually violent predators during their conditional release.
