Authorities are considering a new housing option for a convicted child molester who had been slated for release into a home just outside Turlock.

Stanislaus County District Attorney Jeff Laugero has been fighting for more than a year — going all the way to the state’s Supreme Court — to keep sexually violent predator Kevin Scott Gray from being released from the Department of State Hospitals in Coalinga and into a dwelling at 400 N. Central Ave, about three miles west of the Turlock city limit.

The proposed location, owned by local businessman Surjit Malhi, is flanked by homes with small children, and not far from a school bus stop.

A hearing in Stanislaus County Superior Court on Friday for Gray produced a surprise when defense attorney Martin Baker mentioned another potential release site was in play.

“We’ve had meaningful conversations with all parties involved regarding a possible resolution,” said Baker, who then told Judge Carrie M. Stephens that the proposed location is a home on county property. “I assure you this will arrive at a better outcome for everybody.”

Gray, joining the proceedings online, sat silently in a beige jumpsuit until Stephens asked if he was amenable to the new proposal.

“If I have to go along with it, OK, your honor,” Gray said.

Jane Hu, representing the DSH, said her office would want to check for GPS signal availability, and signal strength, at the newly proposed location, which was not revealed in court.

“We’ll want to do a forensic and clinical analysis,” said Hu. “And it will need to be done in a collaborative approach,” with DSH, Liberty Healthcare (overseer of the state’s SVP conditional release program), attorneys for both sides and the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department.

At first, Friday’s hearing seemed to be nothing more than the attorneys choosing a date for an evidentiary hearing.

Then Baker surprised the courtroom.

“It was a pleasant surprise,” said Candace Gonsalves, who has spearheaded citizen efforts opposing Gray’s release into the North Central Avenue residence. “I’m happy that all parties seem to be working together now, because I think that’s what was supposed to happen at the beginning of this whole deal.”

Gonsalves stopped short of calling it a victory, however, saying legislative reforms regarding the release of SVPs are needed.

Specifically, Gonsalves would like to see a rent cap on the amount Liberty Healthcare can pay for dwellings to be used by SVPs.

“There’s absolutely no reason a sexually violent predator should be able to stay at a home that a citizen can’t afford,” said Gonsalves. “There are so many other people who deserve to be able to stay at that property, but can’t compete when Liberty is coming in at three to four times fair-market value.”

Malhi entered into an agreement with Liberty in March of 2024 for $10,500 per month to house Gray and convicted child molester Timothy Roger Weathers. Though Stephens ruled in July 2024 that the site was unsuitable (a decision that was reversed by the Fifth Appellate District), rental payments have continued ever since — at taxpayers' expense.

Weathers was not in court on Friday. A hearing in his case is slated for this coming Friday.

Baker pointed out that while the new location is being considered, Gray does not concede that the North Central Avenue residence is unsuitable.

Gray, now 73, has admitted to molesting 25 children and having committed 1,000 acts of indecent exposure against female victims between the ages of 8 and 11, court documents show.

In 1974, Gray pleaded guilty in Los Angeles County to one count of child molestation and received 36 months of formal probation.

Five years later in Park County, Wyoming, Gray was convicted of one count of having sexual contact with a minor, as well as burglary with intent to commit a felony. He was sentenced to four years in state prison and was credited with 14 months for time spent at the Wyoming State Hospital. 

In 1986, Gray was convicted in Stanislaus County for committing lewd acts with an 11-year-old Ceres girl, and received an eight-year sentence. In May 1993 he was convicted again in Stanislaus County on two counts of committing lewd acts with a child under the age of 14, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The District Attorney’s most recent motion presented details about Gray’s crimes and proclivities, and asserts that he should not be housed next to children due to his “ongoing impulsive behavior and recent statements that he still has sexual thoughts about children.”

Those thoughts include fantasies “about kidnapping young children for sexual purposes” and “having an underground basement where he could imprison young girls that he could sexually assault,” court documents show.

Weathers was convicted in 1986 for molesting a child and sentenced to probation. Two years later, while still on probation, the former Ceres resident was convicted of molesting two different boys in Stanislaus County. He was sentenced in 1991 to 18 years in prison, then transferred to the state hospital in 2000, and admitted to doctors that he molested 20 to 45 boys.

All parties will meet again for a status conference on Aug. 21 to determine the next steps.

Weathers is due back in Stephens’ court on Friday.