MODESTO — Prosecutors are still pushing to prevent the release of a convicted child molester from being released from the Department of State Hospitals and into a house west of Turlock.

Kevin Scott Gray’s protracted legal quest to be released into a residence at 400 N. Central Ave. — about three miles outside Turlock’s city limit — seems to be nearing a conclusion. Tuesday’s placement hearing before Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Carrie M. Stephens was to determine whether Gray would be released into the dwelling. The proceeding took longer than expected and will resume on April 3 at 1:30 p.m. in Department 4.

Last month, District Attorney Jeff Laugero sought comments from the public about Gray’s potential release, and some 2,500 responses were collected and presented to Stephens. 

Chief Deputy District Attorney Wendell Emerson said in court Tuesday that Gray, 74, remains a potential threat to children. 

Emerson questioned Terry Seese, the chief of the DA’s Bureau of Investigation, about buildings and sheds where a child could be hidden.

Seese replied that there were such structures on the property.

“Your honor, as an offer of proof for this line of questioning, we’re going to elicit testimony (April 3) from the doctors to whom Kevin Gray has expressed thoughts that he wants to kidnap young girls and hold them in cells on properties in rural areas,” Emerson told Stephens. “So, that’s why this line of questioning about places to hold kids in cells would be relevant.”

Stephens replied: “I think it’s relevant anyway, but go ahead.”

Seese was one of six witnesses to take the stand Tuesday, joining Erica Farmer and Maria Padilla, who each live next door to the 400 N. Central Ave. property, as well as Sgt. Nathan Crain of the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department, county building official Denny Ferreira, and Chatom Elementary Transportation Supervisor Heath Wool.

Both Farmer and Padilla said under oath that their lives, and the lives of their children, would be impacted should Gray be allowed to live next door.

Farmer’s husband, Brenton Farmer, told the Journal outside of the courtroom that the family plans to upgrade the hundreds of yards of oil-pipe fence that surrounds their property should Gray be allowed to live next door.

“We’d probably still use oil-pipe fencing, only taller and with wood pickets in it so that nobody could see onto the property,” said Brenton Farmer. “We don’t plan to sell the house because it’s been in my wife’s family for years — she’s the third generation of her family to live in the house — but our property value would be completely destroyed if he lives next door.”

Crain testified about potential response times to 911 calls in the area, and Wool told the court about the location of bus stops (there are 22 within a one-mile radius and two within 100 yards of 400 N. Central Ave.) and the times at which children are picked up and dropped off.

Each also testified that neither the Department of State Hospitals or Liberty Healthcare (which oversees the state’s conditional release program for sexually violent predators) ever contacted them during their assessment to see if the dwelling was a suitable location for Gray.

Both Gray and convicted child molester Timothy Roger Weathers were set to be released into the west Turlock residence in 2024, but it was discovered that Farmer home-schooled her youngest daughter. That led to Stephens’ initial ruling that the location was unsuitable for the SVPs. The Fifth District Court reversed Stephens’ decision last July 9.

Weathers was set to reside in a secondary residence on the property. However, according to Ferreira’s testimony, that residence was constructed without proper permits, and has been ruled unsuitable for the time being.

Convicted four times of crimes involving forceful sexual violence against children between the ages of 8 and 11, Gray has admitted that at least 10 of his sexual assaults involved breaking into homes to access the victim, court documents show.

“Additionally, (Gray) has admitted molesting 50 children under the age of 14 and exposing himself to, or masturbating in front of, young children at least 1,000 times,” court documents show. “(Gray) admitted he likes peering into house windows to look at young children and masturbate. He has stated he has masturbated in public approximately 250 times.”

Gray, who joined the proceedings remotely wearing a beige jailhouse jumpsuit, has been held by the Department of State Hospitals since 2002. According to a DSH evaluation, he “remains a danger to the health and safety of others in that he is likely to engage in future predatory sexually violent criminal behavior.” His crimes date back to 1974.