Kenneth Kaston Rasmuson, the first officially designated “sexually violent predator” to be released into Santa Barbara County, has moved into a residence northeast of Lompoc, and Sheriff’s Department spokesman Drew Sugars said deputies began notifying neighbors of his presence Saturday.
Sugars said Rasmuson, 47, on Friday moved to 2020 Cebada Canyon Road, north of La Purisima Golf Course. He had been registered in the county as a transient since a state appeals court ordered his conditional release from Atascadero State Hospital in November 2007. As a result of his sex crime conviction, Rasmuson is required by law to register with the local law-enforcement agency in the community where he resides. The Sheriff’s Department has no legal authority to dictate where he lives, Sugars said.
In 1981, Rasmuson was convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy he had lured into a gully along Las Positas Road, near what is now Elings Park. He was sentenced to state prison and upon completion of his sentence, was committed to Atascadero State Hospital, from which he was conditionally released in 1985.
Two years later, in 1987, Rasmuson abducted a 3-year-old boy from a Los Angeles sidewalk while the child’s sister screamed for help. News reports said the toddler was found wandering naked near Kanan Road in Agoura Hills the next day. Rasmuson was convicted of kidnapping and lewd and lascivious acts on a 3-year-old child and sentenced to 17 years in prison. After serving nine years of that sentence, he was granted parole in 1996 and transferred back to Atascadero State Hospital under California’s Sexually Violent Predator Act.
Since his release in 2007, Sugars said, Rasmuson has been and will continue to be under the direct supervision of the state Department of Mental Health through a contractor, Liberty Healthcare. Rasmuson is also on 24/7 GPS monitoring tracking, Sugars said.
Pursuant to Penal Code Section 290 and 290.4, Sugars said, deputies are notifying the public to allow residents to protect themselves and their children from sex offenders and sexual predators. He noted that is unlawful for the public to use such information to commit a crime against a registered sex offender or illegally discriminate or harass a registered sex offender.
Rasmuson, described as 5-foot-10 and 210 pounds, has served his court-imposed sentence and currently “is not wanted by law enforcement nor is he on active probation or parole,” a Sheriff’s Department statement said.
— Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen can be reached at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com.
