A sexually violent predator Poway fought to block in 2024 cut his GPS monitor and vanished in Rancho Bernardo on Friday, Sept. 25.
Merle Wakefield, 69, removed the device at about 3:30 a.m. while working at a warehouse, the San Diego County Sheriff's Office said. Liberty Health Care, the contractor that supervises Wakefield under California's Conditional Release Program, responded and found the device discarded. Wakefield was gone.
He is wanted for violating the terms of his release. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported it is the first time an SVP in San Diego County has removed a GPS device and gone missing.
RELATED | Sexually violent predator removes GPS, flees Rancho Bernardo
In July 2024, the California Department of State Hospitals recommended placing Wakefield at 15720 Sycamore Canyon Road, just outside Poway city limits in unincorporated San Diego County, according to a Sheriff's Office public notice. Wakefield was convicted in 1980 and 1991 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and rape by force.
Poway Mayor Steve Vaus warned on X on July 8, 2024, that the state wanted to place a sexually violent predator near two horseback riding facilities frequented by women and girls. The City of Poway organized a community rally at Garden Road Park on July 12, 2024. Vaus led the protest alongside Deputy Mayor Caylin Frank, Councilmembers Peter De Hoff and Brian Pepin, Poway Unified School District Trustee Ginger Couvrette and Jeff Grace of Keep RB Safe.
That same day, Vaus declared the Sycamore Canyon Road placement "off the table," writing on X: "POWAY's voice was heard."
The exact mechanism that stopped the placement is unclear. The Sheriff's Office had scheduled a public hearing for Aug. 9, 2024, before Judge Yvonne E. Campos in San Diego Superior Court, but Vaus announced the withdrawal weeks before that date.
Where Wakefield went instead
When Wakefield won his bid for conditional release in late 2024, no housing could initially be found, the Union-Tribune reported. He was ordered released as a transient with round-the-clock, in-person supervision. By the time he left the state hospital the following month, authorities placed him in a home in Jacumba Hot Springs. He most recently had been living in Campo, according to sheriff's Lt. Aloha Peters.
He has been on conditional release since November 2024.
Broader pushback
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, whose 75th District includes Poway and Rancho Bernardo, has introduced AB 22 to prohibit SVP placements in residential neighborhoods, on tribal lands or as transients. In a July 2025 press release, DeMaio cited a state audit that found the Conditional Release Program's cost had risen 74.2%, reaching $11.5 million a year.
On Saturday, Sept. 26, the City of Poway's official X account shared the Sheriff's wanted notice, noting that Wakefield was the same SVP the city had fought to keep out.
Wakefield stands 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 230 pounds and has brown eyes. The Sheriff's Office asks anyone who sees him to call 911 and not approach him.
