Freed sexual offender registers in Olympia
OLYMPIA — Two days after being freed unconditionally in California, a violent sexual offender has moved to the Olympia area and registered his address with local authorities.
Brian DeVries, 45, walked into the Thurston County sheriff’s office Wednesday afternoon and provided his address as required under Washington state’s sex-offender registration law, Det. Daryl Leischner told The Olympian.
He was released Monday by a California judge after spending a year under constant surveillance in a trailer on prison grounds at Soledad, following more than six years in post-prison treatment.
Leischner said DeVries registered immediately after arriving in the area although he had 30 days to do so.
“It means he didn’t want to take any chances. He wanted to do the right thing. He’s not playing games,” Leischner said. “He’s real understanding of people’s apprehension of him being in the neighborhood.”
DeVries will live temporarily with his father in the Olympia area before moving to a permanent location on family property near Shelton in Mason County, The Olympian reported Thursday.
DeVries has been in and out of prison over the past 20 years after molesting at least nine young boys in New Hampshire, Florida and San Jose, Calif.
He is the first graduate of California’s post-prison treatment program for sexually violent predators at Atascadero State Hospital. He also got additional outpatient treatment during the year he spent living alone in a tiny trailer in Soledad.
But two experts disagreed on whether he was ready to be released.
On Monday, Santa Clara County Judge Robert Baines told him he is free to travel wherever he wants, as long as he registers regularly with police. “Good luck, Mr. DeVries, and for God’s sake don’t prove me wrong,” Baines said.
Washington Gov. Gary Locke issued a statement criticizing the judge’s decision.
“It is outrageous that this judge released a sexually violent predator with absolutely no requirements for surveillance or supervision,” the governor said. Locke said California “has a fundamental responsibility to monitor Mr. DeVries, and they have abandoned that responsibility.”
Outside court on Monday, DeVries vowed that he wouldn’t offend again.
“You have to check and balance your thoughts all the time,” he said. “I’m going to live that way now and in the future.”
He was voluntarily castrated in August 2001, a surgery he says took away his ability for sexual arousal, though some experts doubt the effectiveness of such surgeries.
He said Monday that he plans to run a jewelry business he started with a longtime friend, and continue living a life of restraint.
Atascadero’s treatment program is designed for California’s most serious, violent, repeat sex offenders. Those who fit the profile are sent to the mental hospital after serving their prison sentences, and can be recommitted every two years until a judge decides they’re no longer a threat to society.