The case of Leonard Scroggins, a Northern California sex offender who police suspect in a brazen rash of South Bay robberies and kidnap attempts, is prompting new complaints about the state's handling of serial criminals.
Leonard Scroggins
Scroggins cut off the GPS bracelet strapped to his ankle and skipped town late Monday, parole officials said.
By Tuesday night, the convicted sex offender, 32, who has been in and out of prison since he was a teenager, turned up in Chula Vista, where police say he tried to rob a 17-year-old girl and kidnap a woman.
The girl escaped, but the woman was stabbed at least once as she got away. She was treated at a hospital and is expected to survive.
Wednesday afternoon, Scroggins snatched a woman's purse as she walked on a National City street, police said. Ninety minutes later he grabbed a 13-year-old girl, held a knife to her throat and tried to drag her into his car, they said.
"He kept repeating in a low voice, 'Get in the car or I will cut you,' " said Guadalupe Perez, an eighth-grader at National City Middle School. "I didn't want to be one of those cases where you find my remains three years from now."
Scroggins was arrested after an intense manhunt in National City, about eight hours after police say he stole the 20-year-old woman's purse as she was walking on East 30th Street near B Avenue around 2:20 p.m.
The woman struggled with her assailant but lost her purse, police said. She memorized the license plate of the man's minivan, a Nissan Quest, which was registered to Scroggins' mother.
The spate of attacks has angered victim advocates and others, who complain parole officials are not doing enough to protect the public from dangerous felons.
"These are sick, demented, perverted individuals," said Todd Spitzer, an Orange County prosecutor who was sharply critical of the prison system throughout his three terms in the Legislature. "The only solution is to lock them up and throw away the key. They're not rehabilitatable. They're sexual predators, and they're called that for a reason."
State prison officials said they followed the appropriate procedures after Scroggins removed his GPS bracelet. They issued an arrest warrant but no bulletin to law enforcement.
"There is no requirement to do that, and it is just not something that is routinely done," spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. "If any law enforcement agency had picked him up, they could have held him on a parole hold."
Scroggins is to be arraigned Monday in San Diego on several charges, including attempted kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted robbery.
Meanwhile, emerging details of his criminal history paint a portrait of a continuing offender.
According to Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records, Scroggins was 17 when he transferred into the California Youth Authority in 1995 from South Carolina.
It was not immediately clear why Scroggins was moved from South Carolina. The underlying offense listed on parole records refers to a state code section pertaining to the transfer of juvenile sex offenders from one state to another.
State prison officials said he was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of aiding or abetting rape on a case in Napa County. Details of the conviction were not available Thursday.
Scroggins was paroled in 1999 but returned to custody later that year and again in 2001 and 2002.
On April 22, 2002, Scroggins was arrested for making a terrorist threat, a crime that can either be charged as a misdemeanor or felony. He was discharged from parole in 2003 even though he was facing new criminal charges.
He admitted to a felony terrorist-threat charge in 2004 and was sent back to prison for six years. He was released in January but was returned to custody in February before winning release in March.
Napa County sheriff's Capt. Tracey Stuart said Scroggins registered as a transient sex offender in her jurisdiction after his most recent release.
During a family gathering May 13, she said, Scroggins grabbed a 14-year-old relative in a hug and fondled her backside. "We believe it was a sexual battery," Stuart said.
The incident was not reported until Monday, however, and investigating deputies quickly learned Scroggins was a registered sex offender whose GPS bracelet was no longer working.
"We tried his cell phone and left messages with his mother trying to locate him," Stuart said.
By the time Napa County sheriff's deputies contacted state parole officials, Scroggins was gone.
News of Scroggins' criminal past along with the new accusations were troubling to Harriet Salarno of Crime Victims United, an advocacy group that is suing the state over its early-release policy.
"These people cannot be cured," Salarno said. "So why are we letting them out? ... You can control a GPS monitor just so much."
The crime spree comes days after convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III was sentenced to multiple life terms in prison for murdering North County teenagers Amber Dubois and Chelsea King. His handling by state parole officials has sparked many calls for reform.
The girl attacked in National City said a jogger who fought off Gardner in December was an inspiration to her when she was confronted by a would-be kidnapper with a knife.
Guadalupe said she screamed, reached for the knife, slicing her finger in the process and then hit him with her elbow and ran as blood gushed from her finger.
"If I didn't do that, I wouldn't be here today," she said.
Her mother, Lucy Barraza, said she won't let her daughter walk alone anymore and that she'd be more protective than ever. Barraza said she thinks her daughter is a hero.
