Sex offender re-arrested

Spokane police officers believe they nabbed a naked burglar.

Trevor Lee Franklin, a 22-year-old registered sex offender, entered a stranger’s Browne’s Addition apartment and disrobed just before 11 p.m. Tuesday, according to police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer DeRuwe.

Franklin, who was just released from prison a few days ago after serving time for an assault, may also be responsible for a string of pants-down prowlings on the South Hill earlier this week, police believe.

In Tuesday’s burglary, a tenant and his girl-friend told officers they found Franklin naked outside their apartment at the Broadmoor, 2136 W. Riverside Ave. Franklin’s clothing was found inside their apartment, and the apartment had been ransacked.

The tenant returned Franklin’s clothes to him, and Franklin, fondling himself, entered the apartment and tried to hug the tenant, according to court documents. The tenant and his girlfriend pushed Franklin outside and locked the door.

He was clothed when police found him in a stairwell and arrested him. He had in his possession the girlfriend’s belt, which police say he stole from the apartment.

Franklin was released from prison Friday. He was serving a sentence that started May 3 for third-degree assault, but he was not under state Department of Corrections supervision at the time of his most recent arrest.

Police are investigating whether he is the same man who was caught on surveillance footage attempting to enter a South Hill home with his pants pulled down to his ankles early Sunday in the area of East 31st Avenue and South Manito Boulevard.

In that case, a resident looked out the bedroom window and saw the man running toward a stopped car after trying to open the home’s door. He slipped in the snow before getting in the car and leaving. Police received multiple reports of a suspicious male approaching more than 15 houses.

Franklin was convicted in May of assault for beating his girlfriend, who later told Spokane County sheriff’s detectives she was the victim of human trafficking in an unrelated case. No charges were filed in that case because the woman became uncooperative and detectives couldn’t substantiate her claims.

He also has a prior conviction for third-degree assault with sexual motivation for threatening to kill a developmentally delayed 20-year-old woman if she refused to have sex with him.

He was required to register as a level 3 sex offender. Level 3 offenders are considered most likely to reoffend.

Franklin was arrested on suspicion of residential burglary for Tuesday’s incident and booked into Spokane County Jail. He appeared in Spokane County Superior Court Wednesday, and a judge set his bond at $50,000.