Judge Bars Release of Serial Rapist

A convicted serial rapist who requires around-the-clock care cannot be released from a state mental hospital until authorities find a place where he can receive the medical treatment he needs, a Sonoma County judge has ruled.

George Benjamin Putney, 54, has been convicted of four rapes and one attempted rape, all of which took place in Sonoma County since 1966. He was due to be set free last month, when Atascadero State Hospital ruled that he was no longer a “sexually violent predator.”

Doctors said Putney is too sick with advanced syphilis and dementia to hurt anyone.

But on Friday, Judge Allan Hardcastle banned the release, saying the state had made no arrangements for Putney’s care. He has been at Atascadero since 1996.