On Monday, January 15th, three young girls were harassed by a member of Ukiah’s houseless community, outraging local parents and business owners. At January 17th’s City Council meeting, multiple residents not only shared their concerns about this incident, but also wider spread issues such as vandalism, public defecation, shoplifting, and loitering. Tracy Theriot, who described herself as a mother, business owner, teacher, and fifth-generation resident of Ukiah, recounted the incident.
“Two days ago, at about 3:45 p.m., three young women were walking on School Street the first time that they were allowed to without an adult. They were spending time together before heading to my business and their CrossFit teen class,” she said. “One of them, taking in her surroundings, made eye contact with a known felon, sex offender, rapist, and attempted kidnapper who was loitering on School Street. His name is Angel Miller.”
Theriot said that Miller proceeded to chase and threaten the young girls until local business owners intervened and called UPD.
“At the time, the families were told there was no crime,” Theriot said. “No crime committed and he would only be held overnight.”
UPD did arrest Miller at 4:35 p.m. on Monday for violation of parole and disorderly conduct and has not yet been released as of press time according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s booking logs.
“It’s not a crime to chase someone until you catch them. It’s not a crime to terrify young women only until you hurt them. It’s not a crime to harass, threaten, or otherwise behave unfavorably in the public commons and make them inhospitable to our businesses, citizens, and our visitors until you hurt someone or deface public property,” Theriot said.
The Ukiah Daily Journal reported that, in 2015, Miller was arrested on suspicion of felony assault with attempt to rape and felony attempted kidnapping of a 17-year-old female.
Kerry McMullen, the mother of one of the minors involved in this week’s incident, spoke to the Council as well.
“Is the bar so low that we’re just happy that our girls got away from a sex offender and a rapist who’s allowed to lay on the streets every day because he hasn’t committed a crime?” she asked. “That’s ridiculous and it’s going to end with violence.”
Mayor Josefina Duenas responded to those who spoke saying that she understood as both a mother and grandmother. She suggested creating an ad hoc committee to increase safety for minors in town and welcomed other suggestions from the public on how to address these type of incidents.
On the larger matter of the houseless population, Duenas said, “I am asking you to look in your heart when you see those type of people come into your houses or your businesses.”
Theriot and other local business owners said that these type of incidents along with other disruptive encounters with the local houseless population are becoming more and more common.
Todd Schapmire Sr. of W Real Estate said that over the past two weeks he “had 46 homeless encounters” at three of his properties. He said that his company lost a property due to a fire started by a houseless resident and that syringes are found at Plaza del Sol, where the Mendocino County Youth Project is located.
“I want to be clear that this is not an issue of homelessness,” Theriot said. “This is an issue of crime, an issue of what is right and what is wrong, and an issue that our town and its leadership are losing control and influence over.”
It’s only going to get worse! Parents Ukiah is not safe, you need to prepare yourself and your family. You need to educate yourself and your children. Train your children and yourself to avoid or to attack. Complaining to the City council isn’t going to do anything..
This! It’s only going to be on us to protect our children! What a sad, ending world we live in.
Finland has a really great homeless model. They have almost zero homeless on their streets. (YouTube)
Homelessness increases crime.
Hopelessness increases crime.
School street is where I have started teaching my kids to walk around alone too. This sucks. Thank you to the shop owners, that’s called community.
As for compassion goes I have it. It’s the medical industry that has none, keeping ill people on the street. We had to wear masks for 2 years to protect others preemptively, why would we not protect our kids by assisting ill people before they commit crimes?
Enough with calling Mr Pedophile houseless. This guy is worthless scum and is a threat to our kids. Teach your kids to be very aware of their surroundings. Make Mendo safe again!
It’s a matter of time and he will do more then just molest rape harass and so on. He needs to be in prison for the rest of his life.
I’m glad the girls got away and I’m glad they were together and it wasn’t just one girl.
Please parents use this as an educational tool. The kids and parents need to be educated about this.
And to the parents of these girls good job standing up. If you do another city council meeting please let more parents know. I would love to attend.
Why is he not being held on a parole violation? I’m sure it’s part of his parole
Because Newsom changed all that before and during Covid. He should have never been let out of prison when charged the first time.
Katy…Newsom doesn’t have that authority.
Nor did he have it during the pandemic.
But, the CA Judicial Council does have the authority and did so during the pandemic according to the law. That’s an entirely different branch of the government, the Judicial.
The Governor is an Executive.
People should be required to take and pass Civics classes for a high school diploma.
Well that’s funny cause I have friends that work at San Quentin and had to deal with this. He okayed for inmates to be released from San Quentin and also had a press Confrence speaking out about how he’s doing so and allowing all death row inmates to choose the prison of their choice so they can be moved.
They allowed violent inmates out under the guise of over population.
How do I know you ask?? Good question. First I have very close friends working in the prison system second I know unfortunately an inmate that was on “death row”. He has since been relocated to his choice of prison. I’m pretty much head long into this because I had to sit on two murder trials for my daughter.
The governor has more say then most people believe and during a “pandemic” he has a lot more say.
Just saying. I mean I could have dreamt it all up. The media just isn’t allowing it out cause got to paint the picture true just right for that good ole Governor.
Sounds like non fiction is
into defending child molesters.
Maybe you should take a civil
disposition class because your
civil disposition is classless.
Ummm….he’s being held on a “parole violation”.
It says so right there in the article.
“Mayor Josefina Duenas…suggested creating an ad hoc committee to increase safety for minors in town and welcomed other suggestions from the public on how to address these type of incidents.”
The obvious “suggestion” would be to keep such individuals from running loose. No doubt some members of the public have even more decisive ideas about the problem. If our leadership doesn’t wake up, we’re headed to a point where a much tougher approach will probably be taken.
If our leaders and law enforcement don’t wake up we are in big trouble. It’s time for WE the PEOPLE to stand up and use our voice. I lost my daughter to the hands for two registered sex offenders along with four other girls before they were caught and arrested. About a year later another young lady lost her life to one also. They are completely dangerous and should never be let out.
Back when men protected their communities and took no notice of any liberal bullshit. This man would be in jail or properly punished for his ways. If the sheriff did nothing the men of the town dealt with it accordingly and a new sheriff wd be appointed. But now we all walk around human feces on our sidewalks and. HOPE. Our own family is lucky enough to avoid being a victem of this liberal hippie infested insanity. Time to dismiss the liberals and take back law and order. If we don’t respect ourselves enough to do that at least let’s offer our next generations a sliver of hope for a reasonable lifestyle
An immediate solution would be to create a dedicated “downtown enforcement team” that is staffed by one (preferably two) officers (either of bicycles or electric motorcycles) during day and swing shift. However, that’s going to cost alot of money and will require the hiring of at least 4-8 officers to cover the whole week.
Longer term, if people want harsher punishments for criminal acts, then they need to vote in elected officials who will pass legislation to do just that. The opposite has been going on since the late 2000s. The people have been voting in officials who pass legislation that forces more convicts to be housed/monitored at the local level (instead of the state level), and the people vote for propositions that, in general, make the punishments for crime less severe.
The people will get the government they vote for.
Ukiah is a small town like 5 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. They have a Sheriff’s Office, court house deputies and a Police station inside this same radius. They have the personnel already to make downtown safer. Better lighting in the downtown and strategically placed emergency telephones that auto call the police or set off an alarm to PD would add and/or discourage this stalking behavior from mental cases loitering in downtown. They have these on University and college campuses and they are effective. Crime, nationally speaking, is down across essentially all categories. Ukiah has some elevated crimes levels due to poor economics and a culture that attracts less desirables.
Please keep our kids safe. That should be our number 1 priority. They are what matters
Where is the leadership in this town? Why is stuff like this tolerated? This place keeps getting more and more ghetto.
Duenas said, “I am asking you to look in your heart when you see those type of people come into your houses or your businesses.”
I’m shocked, come into your house or business. I was there, I didn’t realize she used these words, I heard love and compassion. The way these laws are written, have no love or compassion. It is simply cruel. To say it’s okay for someone to live on the street subjected to weather (freezing temperatures), no job, no money, no food. Now add in that they are either mentally ill, drug addicted or both.
All our leaders have failed, City Council and BOS. I know this will upset some, but a simple talk from Mo Mulheren will not cure this issue. She has served in a City Council and BOS position for the last 7 years, my point, she has a real say in this matter, as do the other politicians. This problem is getting worse, not better. It is out of control. She says it has improved. What city is she talking about, it’s not Ukiah.
I stated at the City Council meeting that I’m willing to be part of a group that includes business owners, UPD, City Council, BOS, Sherriff Dept., DA, and Judges. Come up with a plan, that we all are on the same page in dealing with this crisis.
WE CANNOT WAIT UNTIL TWO TEENAGERS ARE ATTACKED BY A HOMELESS SEX PREDATOR OR A CITIZEN HAS TO TAKE MATTERS IN THEIR OWN HANDS.
Total agree TODD! People need to be proactive and have a plan, training, stranger Awareness, situational awareness skills. It’s only going to get worse..
You are correct.
Maybe parents of victims could come share their story so maybe they will understand how important change is.
So many are blessed to have never been a victim or have a loved one be a victim of a crime that could have been prevented. So it’s very easy to fight for compassion for what you don’t know or haven’t felt.
Ukiah has gone way downhill its utterly shocking…. keep voting democrat
It’s wrong to refer to technical juveniles as women, when they are girls being harassed by a known sex offender.
It’s even more wrong for the police call no harm no foul when a known sex offender is being stalkerish and making unwanted advances
On that note, when people start taking the law into their own hands, making perpetrators out of victims. Maybe the law will be exposed as the selfserving corrupt cesspool that it is.
The “leadership” in Ukiah is inadequate. I have watched Ukiah deteriorate over the last ten years. It doesnt take a genius to figure out that the “homeless” are drug addicts sponsored by the state inadvertently. If a task force was assigned to locate the drug dealers profiting from the misery of the addicts instead of giving them hotel rooms do overdose in maybe we could make some progress. Ukiah leaders: why don’t you “look into your hearts” for the normal people of Ukiah that pay taxes and fear for their safety.