A convicted sex offender will be placed into a supervised home in east San Diego County within the next week, and San Diego County sheriff's deputies went door-to-door in the Jacumba Hot Springs community to inform residents of his impending release.
Sheriff's deputies and members of the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Task Force notified residents on Wednesday that Michael James Poulsom, 61, will be placed at 45612 Old Highway 80 on or before June 5. He will be monitored via a GPS ankle device.
Poulsom was convicted on three separate occasions --including twice in San Diego County — for sex crimes involving children and is classified as a Sexually Violent Predator — or SVP — a designation for those convicted of sexually violent offenses and diagnosed with a mental disorder -- pedophilia disorder, in Poulsom's case — that makes them a danger to the public.
After being committed to a state hospital, Poulsom petitioned for release from the hospital and into the Conditional Release, or CONREP, program for sex offenders, after which the Department of State Hospitals proposed placing him at the Jacumba Hot Springs home.
His release was approved by a judge earlier this year amid opposition from the District Attorney's Office, county Supervisor Dianne Jacob and residents of the rural East County region.
At a March court hearing, Jacob said Poulsom's release would contribute to "an over-concentration of Sexually Violent Predators out in the rural East County."
The supervisor previously said the area had become a "dumping ground" for SVPs and requested alternative proposed sites, such as the grounds of the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, where some SVPs have been situated in the past.
