Richard Lucero died this past weekend in the Yolo County jail at age 73, as he awaited trial on charges that he failed to register as required as a sex offender under Penal Code section 290. His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Lisa Lance, filed a motion last Friday (June 15) for a dismissal in the interest of justice.
In her motion she explained that Mr. Lucero had registered out of Sacramento County in August 2017 as required. At that time, he gave the specific residence in West Sacramento where he was moving.
He and his wife had been evicted from their residence and he was being treated for metastatic liver cancer. According to his attorney, at the time “[h]e apparently had been fighting cancer for several years already, and was quite ill.”
Ms. Lance notes, “It is alleged by the prosecution that Mr. Lucero willfully failed to ‘register in’ after he moved to that same West Sacramento address he gave when he ‘registered out.'”
In March 2018, he contacted West Sacramento PD. The officer made an appointment on March 21 for him to register at the department. However, instead of waiting, the next day, officers went to his residence, 
found Mr. Lucero in the residence and arrested him for two felony violations of PC section 290. He has been in custody ever since.
Ms. Lance writes that, because he was in custody, “Mr. Lucero did not make it to his referral to Woodland Clinic, nor did he receive any other treatment for his cancer at that time.”
In April his condition worsened and he was hospitalized at Woodland Memorial for blood transfusions and, in May, he was in the hospital again, where tests were conducted showing that “there was essentially no treatment at that time that was medically indicated to assist in fighting his cancer, and he was sent back to the jail for Hospice care.”
In May, the doctor advised counsel as well as two lieutenants from the jail that the prognosis “was extremely poor, and life expectancy was days to months.”
Despite this, Mr. Lucero remained in custody and “was seen by Hospice personnel and jail medical staff regularly.”
His case was set to begin a jury trial on June 18, but he died over the weekend.
Mr. Lucero was arraigned on March 22 for a felony violation, PC section 290(b) for failing to register within specified entrance into a jurisdiction, along with two strike priors from 1987 and 1996.
Ms. Lance notes that he has had no criminal history since 1996.
The matter was set for preliminary hearing on April 5, but defense requested a waiver of the hearing as Mr. Lucero “was quite ill and extremely uncomfortable in court.”
The People agreed to the waiver under the condition that they add a second count, failing to register within five days of his birthday for an annual update – which would have been due on September 6 of 2017, 26 days after registering in Sacramento.
“As such, those are the pending charges and they both have life exposure,” she writes.
Mr. Lucero’s brother offered to give Mr. Lucero a place to live where he could receive his hospice care until he passed away.
In a letter dated April 5, Dr. John Stockburger indicated that Mr. Lucero was a patient at Salud Clinic. He writes: “His case is complicated by severe anemia, at times symptomatic. He is under the care of an oncologist (cancer and blood specialist) and requires frequent monitoring and treatment. He is very frail, and his prognosis is poor.”
The doctor continued, “I am unaware of his legal difficulties. or whether criminal charges are involved. However, if he is not to be released for care in the community, it is critical that his physicians at the jail arrange follow up with Hematology Oncology at Woodland Health Care as soon as possible.”
Two months later, on June 13, doctors and nurses from Yolo Hospice wrote that they “describe his condition as progressing to the point where he is not interested in food and is eating minimal amounts.”
They write, “His energy level is diminishing and he is becoming so weak that he is almost completely bed bound and cannot get out of bed without assistance. He has recently fallen in an attempt to transfer without assistance. He has been sleeping more and more and when awakes, is confused and disoriented. This is indicative of progression of his underlying liver failure and cancer. We estimate that he has a prognosis of less than three months, likely more in the realm of weeks.”
Counsel requested the court dismiss this matter in the furtherance of justice or release Mr. Lucero on supervised OR.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
They knew where he was. Isn’t that the point?
Like many of these posts where we often hear how mean the criminal justice system is to criminals I’m sure there is “more to the story”…
I’d be all ears on this one.
Ken
If you have any knowledge of this case, please share it.
“One of the sacred duties of government is to restrain evil, to protect law-abiding citizens and to ensure that criminals are dealt with in accordance with the laws. However, when a government, in some unimaginable ways, invents crimes against the same people it is meant to protect, that is a negation of the fundamental principles of government.”
“Invents” crimes. Please explain.
What crime did this man commit allegedly? If he committed a crime he failed to follow the proper bureaucratic procedure and thus had his freedom taken away despite not having been convicted of this crime.
He was a registered sex offender. Is your point that the original crime he was charged for was invented?
No my point is that the current incarceration was for an invented technical violation of a non-existent crime.
I wonder what it cost the county to provide 3 months worth of housing and medical care to a dying man who posed no threat to the community. Was the decision made out of ignorance, meanness, or a Jeff Sessions-style slavish adherence to the idea that no crime shall go unpunished (unless those crimes were committed by well-heeled donors)?
Why is it that same people that routinely criticize government for not being a loving organization are also the same people that routinely demand more government?
Let’s set aside for a moment the political ideology that one poster is trying to generalize to those with a different opinion and consider the facts of this cost/benefit ratio of this particular case.
1. Estimated cost ( based on average of 50,00/yr to house a prisoner) equals approximately $12,150. And what did we get for our taxpayer money? The assurance that a man so ill with cancer was that he was refusing food was not going to a. engage in more sexual crimes b. miss a court date that he did not even live to see c. flaunt some bureaucratic technicality. d.escape & flee? Really? What was the purpose of this incarceration?
2. What were the collateral costs? For the innocents who cared about him, family and friends, the inability to be with him in a humane setting during his final hours and at his death. For what? Not the initial crime. But again, because of a bureaucratic glitch.
Now some of you may think this represents “near perfect” judgement. I would have to disagree.
“What was the purpose of this incarceration?”
To me this is the real question here. The purpose of sex offender registration laws is to track sex offenders and alert people to their presence. Leave aside for a moment where that’s a good thing or not, let’s look at this case.
1. This guy is not a threat, he’s dying, he’s bed ridden
2. He attempted to register and get in compliance
So what’s the purpose of this prosecution and incarceration? Some one explain it to me. For those who say, we only have one side of the story, we actually have the claims of the defense attorney and two independent witnesses corroborating at least as to his physical condition – a doctor and hospice.
I see three…
Howard
Cut me some slack. You all know I’m not good with numbers.
As I mentioned in my first post since our jails are not packed with the massive number of guys that did not jump through all the sex offender registration hoops (I read in one county a while back that over half the guys were not registered) and adding in that this guy had cancer there is some other reason that he was locked up.
I know that Tia has posted in the past that she is not good at math and I have found that many people bad at math have a hard time with the concept of “incremental cost”. If it costs my roommate and I $3K a month to live in Davis ($1,500 each for Rent, Food, Utilities) is will not cost and “extra” $1,500 if we let a 70 year old guy with cancer crash on our couch for a month. It will only cost and extra couple hundred to feed the guy and maybe an extra $20-$40 for PG&E if he runs the AC more.
I’m pretty much on the same side as David and Tia in that unless the state can prove that someone in dangerous or a huge flight risk I don’t think they should be in jail or have to post bail, but I want to break the bad news to Tia and others that due to the huge “fixed costs” of the “prison industrial complex” we won’t save $1 million every time we release 20 guys (or gals)…
I agree that this really isn’t a cost savings issue. Although I think it’s a poor use of resources. That said my biggest issue here is that a man died in jail when he didn’t need to.
Ken
My point is not the cost in this individual case. My point is about judgement both on a risk and cost level as it involves our entire system of judgement and incarceration.
Question—
I seem to remember outrage over the release of Frank Rees (Baby Justice’s father)… it’s extremely odd that the DA’s office can get slammed for ‘letting’ some go and not letting others be released. It almost seems like a personal judgement as to when people should be incarcerated and for how long they shouldn’t. Last time I checked you weren’t a judge and there aren’t any judges on this thread.
I hope that you all had time to reflect on who Richard Lucero was…A monster, who preyed on and raped elementary age children. Let that sink in.
Sounds like he was not following the law and registering accordingly— simple enough, there are consequences for that…also sounds like there is a lot of advocating for letting child molesters go because they are sick or dying or don’t pose a threat. I sincerely hope that’s not the case and if you care to read about what this monster did time and time again to children, google his name and make sure that you look at press release from Yolo DA Jeff Reisig’s Office for the information…because it was clearly left out of this poorly constructed and one-sided piece.
Keep digging Greenwald, maybe you will actually find the dirt you so desire to find someday… not going to work with this monster or not anyone that you have highlighted to date.
Here’s the thing – I’m sure Richard Lucero was a bad guy. However, he had not committed an actual crime in 20 years, was dying, and he was not a threat to anyone in that condition. They charged him – questionably with a technical violation of 290 – forcing him to die in custody doesn’t make a lot of sense no matter what he did 20 years earlier.
And who DeAngelo appears to be… a police officer sworn to protect and serve…
“Monsters” come in several flavors… including Dan White… Army, police officer, firefighter and City/County supervisor…
Lucero was a human… however flawed in his past… he already had a “death sentence”… ultimately, we all do….
Reflect on that… let it sink in…
YOU deflect and go off topic…Way off…I see right through the Davis political bubble.
You know zilch about my politics…
Let’s leave it at that…
Eh, I looked up Lucero. I don’t like Yolo’s DA at all… but
This was probably karmic justice. Where’s the 11 year old girl at today in life I wonder?
He had not been caught in a crime in 20 years but it doesn’t mean he had not committed one. But I agree we cannot punish people for what we think they are doing… Still – the sort of crime he committed really has no expiration. That child’s whole life was damaged…
Hard to feel bad for him. But the incarceration does sound like it was a waste of money. I personally believe a lethal injection 20 years ago would have been more appropriate… But I do realize that too would not be considered appropriate by most… Middle ground – I don’t think this particular case is worth too many tears.. For those who disagree – check on the little girl who is now a woman. What’s she got to say about it, I wonder.
All that said; may he RIP and be given any mercy his soul is deserving of.