An attorney for a violent sex predator released this week in Vallejo calls the backlash from the city "hysteria."
"It's like a witch hunt," said attorney Jim McEntee, who represents Fraisure Smith.
The 51-year-old convicted sex offender on Thursday was evicted from the Motel 6 he was placed in after he was released earlier in the week.
Vallejo city leaders said the motel manager did not know they had rented a room to Smith. The managers said state contractors, who picked Smith up from a state hospital, checked him in under their own names.
City officials believe the contractors were trying to hide Smith's identity.
Vallejo police said they are doing all they can to force Smith out of their city.
Smith has been sleeping in a car the past two nights because no motel in the city will rent to him, police said. McEntee in response said that is unfair and wrong.
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"It's incredibly dangerous for him and it presents a nuisance in the community," McEntee said. "Who wants people sleeping in their cars? The community doesn't deserve that and he doesn't deserve that."
McEntee said Smith is concerned about the uproar his presence is causing, but claims he is trying to stay positive.
Smith also is being monitored 24/7 both by GPS and by somebody with him at all times, according to McEntee.
Smith was sentenced to prison in 2006 after he pleaded no contest to assault with intent to commit rape. Smith filed a petition for conditional release and unconditional discharge in April 2012.
A Solano County Superior Court judge last month ordered Smith's release on transient status. Smith was housed at Coalinga State Hospital before his release. The law requires Smith be released in the county he was living in at the time of conviction.
Smith is not the only person to face extreme community backlash after serving a sentence for a sex crime. In 2004, Brian DeVries became the first person to be released from the predator rehabilitation program. He ended up living in a trailer on the grounds of a state prison. Months later, Cary Verse was met by protesters and driven out of several bay area cities. After months of controversy, he finally settled into a place in Bay Point.
There are 550 people in the state's sexually violent predator program. Most of them are housed at a hospital in the Central Valley. Thirty-two have been released with supervision. Twelve are living in communities around the state.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
