Local Man Faces Sexual-Predator Trial Twice Convicted, Declared A High Risk To Reoffend

A Spokane man twice convicted of sex crimes and declared a high risk to reoffend is facing an October trial to decide if he’s a predator.

Ronald Clay Gober, 43, is the third Spokane resident to face involuntary, long-term commitment under the state’s Violent Sexual Predator Act.

Gober was convicted in 1977 of kidnapping and molesting a 3-year-old Spokane girl. He spent more than three years in treatment as a sexual psychopath at Eastern State Hospital.

In 1981, he was placed on work-release. Several months later, Gober was arrested for molesting a 9-year-old Spokane girl who was walking to school. He was convicted of indecent liberties and sent to prison for up to 10 years.

After five years in prison, Gober was paroled and again returned to Spokane.

Police arrested him in July 1990, after two teenage girls said Gober approached them one night. He molested one of them and tried to abduct the other, they said.

Department of Corrections officials sent Gober back to prison for violating his parole. He was scheduled for release in October 1998.

Based on evaluations and his behavior behind bars, the state decided Gober posed too high a risk to the community.

A two-week trial in Spokane, scheduled for October, will decide if he will be sent to the Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island.

Gober appeared Tuesday in Spokane County Superior Court and asked to undergo a pre-trial evaluation in the county jail instead of McNeil Island.

“I fear for my safety,” he said. “I spent time at McNeil Island. I am aware of physical altercations between inmates and people at the (commitment center).”

Judge Sam Cozza denied the appeal, saying state law didn’t give him the option of ordering the evaluation done locally.

Two other Spokane men are facing long-term confinement as sex predators.

Robin Albrecht, 51, was set to stand trial in late 1998, but it has been delayed pending appeals by Albrecht’s attorneys. Herman Paschke, 50, is scheduled to stand trial in July.

Both men are being held in the Spokane County Jail.

Since Washington adopted the controversial predator law in 1990, 49 people have been placed in long-term confinement.

Critics say the law creates an unconstitutional double punishment. The state can initiate confinement proceedings after an offender has completed a prison term, and then declare that person too dangerous to be set free.

They also criticize the law for giving the state the option of keeping a violent predator for as long as deemed necessary.

Early in 1998, however, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that such sexual predator laws are constitutional.

Although a predator trial doesn’t establish guilt or innocence, the state’s job is to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the offender is a danger to society.