The Supreme Court of California is expected to take up the issue of convicted child molester Kevin Scott Gray, who was slated to be released last year from a state hospital and into a home outside of Turlock.
Gray, 72, has confessed to molesting more than 25 children dating back to 1974, and having committed 1,000 acts of indecent exposure against female victims between the ages of 8 and 11, court documents show.
In November, the state’s Fifth District Court of Appeal upheld a July ruling made by Superior Court Judge Carrie M. Stephens, who decreed that a residence just beyond the Turlock city limit was too close to a home school, and thereby unsuitable for Gray to occupy.
“The judge ruled he can’t stay at that location because of the nearby home school,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Wendell Emerson. “They appealed and we opposed that appeals, obviously, and the Fifth District Court ruled in our favor. Now, they’re taking to the state Supreme Court, and, shockingly, the Attorney General’s office came in on their side.”
Joining Gray’s petition is the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, as well as the California Department of State Hospitals. According to legal documents, the AG’s office sites concerns that the state’s “tens of thousands of home schools” would make it “extremely difficult, if not impossible” to place sex offenders who have served their sentences.
Stanislaus County District Attorney Jeff Laugero anticipated these appeals months ago, likening them to kicking a can down the road, but said, “It’s a can worth kicking. And if not us, then who?”
In January 2024, Stephens ruled that Gray could be placed in Ballico — a rural Merced County community just outside of Turlock — despite living in Stanislaus County when he was convicted. Days before Gray’s scheduled Feb. 20 release, Stephens reversed her decision when it became known that the Ballico dwelling was within one quarter-mile of a home school.
Gray, was slated to be released into the same North Central Avenue property along with convicted child molester Timothy Roger Weathers, 61, who was convicted in San Diego County of molesting a child and sentenced to probation. Two years after that, while still on probation, he was convicted of molesting two different boys in Stanislaus County. He was sentenced in 1991 to serve 18 years in prison, according to a report in the Ceres Courier. He admitted to state doctors that he molested 20 to 45 boys. It is unclear if Weathers has also filed an appeal.
Both Gray and Weathers are being held by the Department of State Hospitals in Coalinga.
It has not been determined when the state Supreme Court will review the case.