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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Judge denies appeal, keeps South Hill rapist behind bars

Coe

OLYMPIA – A federal judge in Tacoma turned down the latest request from South Hill rapist Kevin Coe to be released from McNeil Island, where he is incarcerated as a sexually violent predator.

Coe has exhausted one avenue of appeals but still faces annual reviews by the state of the civil commitment that could keep him behind bars for life.

U.S. District Judge J. Richard Creatura rejected Coe’s argument that he had ineffective lawyers when fighting the civil commitment trial. He had already served his rape sentence that was part of a string of attacks in the late 1970s and early 1980s attributed to the South Hill rapist.

Coe also has argued he is entitled to a new civil trial because he wasn’t able to cross-examine or depose some of the rape victims whose testimony formed the basis of a psychologist’s diagnosis that he suffers from personality disorders and mental abnormalities. It might warrant a new trial if this were a criminal conviction, Creatura said in a decision released late last week, but the Sexually Violent Predator program is a civil commitment, so the standard is different. Coe had the right to cross-examine the psychologist about her diagnosis or offer a rebuttal the jury could consider, the judge noted.

Coe filed the request, technically known as a writ of habeas corpus, himself. Its denial, coupled with the denial of appeals of the verdict made in state courts, means he has probably exhausted all of his avenues in federal court, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Wednesday.

But the state must produce evidence annually in Spokane County Superior Court that Coe still is mentally ill and dangerous, and he can petition for a release trial at any time, Alison Dempsey-Hall said in an email.

However, he is unlikely to get a trial unless the Department of Social and Health Services decides he should be released or Coe becomes involved in treatment and shows a change in his condition, she said.

Arrested in March 1981, Coe initially was convicted of four counts of first-degree rape that summer. But those convictions were overturned, in large part because some victims were hypnotized before identifying him. He was retried and convicted of three counts. Then two of those were overturned because the court admitted “post-hypnotic testimony.”

One conviction, however, stood, and he was sentenced to 25 years.

In 2006, the state filed to have him declared a sexually violent predator, a civil procedure, and during that new trial presented evidence from mental health experts that linked him to 36 sexual offenses. A jury agreed with that designation and he was sent to the commitment center for an indefinite period.

Coe has appealed that jury verdict to the state Court of Appeals and later to the state Supreme Court. Both rejected his claims of errors in the civil commitment trial and let the verdict stand.