Sex Predator First To Be Freed After Treatment Judge Orders Electronic Home Monitoring, Other Tough Conditions Put On His Parole To Home In College Place, Wash.

On Monday, Joseph Aqui, who has admitted to 15 rapes and seven attempted rapes, will become the first inmate released upon completing treatment at the state’s controversial Special Commitment Center for sex offenders.

Aqui, 44, will live in College Place, near Walla Walla, with his wife and their two young children under strict rules set Friday by King County Superior Court Judge Larry Jordan.

In addition to 24-hour electronic monitoring, Aqui will be subject to random searches of himself and his home.

He is not permitted to leave the house except for activity approved by his parole officer. Outside the home, Aqui must be supervised by his wife or another “approved monitoring adult,” though exceptions can be approved by his parole officer.

“They’re tough conditions, but the most important thing to us and Mr. Aqui is that he be allowed to return home,” said defense attorney David Hirsch.

“Everything else is secondary,” Hirsch said. “Everything else he can live with.”

State Assistant Attorney General Sarah Coates said the judge also ordered Aqui’s DNA kept on file and “a lot of other things that hopefully will reassure the community.”

Asked whether she was confident the restrictions are sufficient, Coates said: “Only time can tell. … We can only hope that it’ll work out.”

No details will be provided about Aqui’s release Monday, said Karen Burnett, administrative assistant to the director of the treatment center in Monroe.

Aqui is one of 44 people - 43 men and one woman - held at the center under a controversial 1990 state law. The statute allows indefinite commitment of people convicted of sex crimes after they have served their sentences, if a civil jury deems them violent sexual predators who are likely to reoffend.

Washington was the first state to impose such a law. Legal challenges of such measures are being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.

After extensive hearings, Jordan held in November that Aqui’s release was required under a state Supreme Court ruling that found the law constitutional because it provided for inmates’ release upon completion of treatment.

But he ordered tough restrictions to ensure public safety. Hirsch said defense attorneys and prosecutors found more agreement than expected when they worked together on a plan for Aqui’s release.

The restrictions on Aqui are in place “for the immediate future,” Hirsch said. A review hearing will be held before Jordan a year from Monday.

“If there are difficulties, we might end up in court sooner,” he said. “It’s my hope that we won’t.”

Aqui will be overseen by Stan Grabinsky, a community corrections officer based in Walla Walla, Hirsch said. Such officers are part of the state Department of Corrections, “sort of on loan to the Department of Social and Health Services,” he said.

Grabinsky disagreed with defense attorneys on several issues, “including the very issue of whether Mr. Aqui should be released,” Hirsch said.

“But he’s a very honest man … we’re confident he is going to do all he can to make sure this works.”

Aqui will continue intensive psychiatric treatment with Dr. Stephen Rubin, a Walla Walla doctor he has worked with in the past, Hirsch said.

Jordan also directed the treatment center and Grabinsky to help Aqui find work, the attorney said.

Prosecutors had argued for an interim phase of three months in a work-release program at the Walla Walla County Jail, but Jordan approved Aqui’s release directly to his family’s home.