http://www.appeal-democrat.com/121202/121202hpk12wolfenbarger.shtml
Thursday, December 12, 2002
Convicted rapist seeks parole
Yuba DA wants man deemed a 'sexual predator'
Harold Kruger
Appeal-Democrat
Convicted of raping one woman, molesting a girl and trying to kidnap a third person, James D. Wolfenbarger now is like "your average man on the street," a psychologist testified Wednesday.
Wolfenbarger is up for parole, but the Yuba County District Attorney's Office is trying to have him deemed a "sexually violent predator" so he can be sent to a state hospital.
"He's never received any treatment," said Deputy District Attorney Mechele Cook. "We're trying to send him to Atascadero (State Hospital) so he can learn how to control these urges."
Judge James Curry is holding a hearing on whether Wolfenbarger, 43, should be paroled or sent to the state hospital.
The hearing, which began Tuesday, is scheduled to continue today.
Defense psychologist Christopher Heard testified that his tests of Wolfenbarger determined that he's "your average man on the street."
The crimes Wolfenbarger committed in the 1980s were "impulsive, opportunistic acts driven by anger rather than a warping of the sexual hard drive," Heard said.
In late 1982, Wolfenbarger pleaded guilty to rape, kidnap and sodomy in connection with an attack on a female taxi driver in Reno, where Wolfenbarger played in a band.
The band was about to break up, and Wolfenbarger was mad, according to court records. He pulled a knife on the taxi driver and had her drive to Nevada County, where the assault occurred.
In a tearful interview years later with psychologist Robert Owen, Wolfenbarger admitted he "destroyed her life."
Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Wolfenbarger was paroled in September 1987.
"He was angry. He felt he had been mistreated in prison," Heard said. "He was still in denial that he had committed the rape."
While in prison, Wolfenbarger told Owen, "I hated the world. I wanted to kill every cop, every judge."
Eleven days after his release, he tried to kidnap a 16-year-old girl as she walked to school in Marysville. The girl fought back and escaped.
Three weeks later, on Nov. 2, 1987, Wolfenbarger was driving in the Yuba County foothills along Texas Hill Road when he spotted a 6-year-old girl and her 9-year-old male cousin at the school bus stop.
Wolfenbarger tried to pull both children into his vehicle, court records said. He took the girl; the boy ran.
He then molested the girl.
Wolfenbarger was sentenced to 27 years and 10 months in prison in August 1988.
Owen, who evaluated Wolfenbarger for the state's Sexually Violent Predator Program, called him a "power rapist who is aroused by overpowering his victims," according to court documents.
Wolfenbarger "has had great difficulty containing his deviant urges," Owen wrote.
A native of San Jose, Wolfenbarger moved to Yuba County with his family when he was 9 years old, according to Owen's narrative. His father died when he was 14.
Wolfenbarger described his childhood and home life as stable, although he admitted he "frequently lied" and shoplifted, Owen wrote.
He had unspecified "behavioral problems," Owen said, and repeated seventh grade.
He started smoking marijuana when he was 13 and started drinking alcohol at age 14, Owen wrote. Wolfenbarger said he used LSD 10 times.
While in prison the second time, Wolfenbarger became a Jehovah's Witness and was baptized in 1997.
"It changed my life," he told Owen. "I realized God wouldn't tolerate how I was living. I stopped smoking and cussing."