Sex offender released from McNeil Island moves to Spokane
A sex offender with an extensive history of breaking into women’s homes in Spokane has been released from McNeil Island after a state psychologist said he was no longer dangerous.
McNeil Island is the home of the Special Commitment Center for sex offenders deemed by the courts as too dangerous to release after they have finished serving their prison sentences.
Charles Sean Tillman, 47, was convicted in Spokane County of indecent liberties with forcible compulsion in 1993. He also was convicted of several burglary charges after breaking into the homes of several women in Spokane.
Tillman was committed to McNeil Island after two trials, one in 2004 that resulted in a deadlocked jury and one in 2005 that sent him to the Special Commitment Center. Tillman appealed the verdict in 2005 and again in 2015.
Tillman, who hired a psychologist in 2015 who said Tillman doesn’t suffer from a mental abnormality, asked for a new trial. The state hired an outside psychologist to be an expert witness and that psychologist said Tillman no longer met the definition of a sexually violent predator, according to court documents.
The psychologist said that while she believed with a “reasonable degree of psychological certainty” that Tillman had a mental abnormality, she couldn’t say with certainty that he likely would reoffend if not held in a secure facility, court documents state. Both elements must be proven in order to classify someone as a sexually violent predator.
The state’s case was dismissed without prejudice, which means it can be refiled if Tillman commits another sex crime. Tillman is considered a Level III sex offender, the category considered most likely to reoffend.
He was released Aug. 27. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office sent a notice on Tuesday that he has listed a home address in the 800 block of East Euclid Avenue in Spokane.
Tillman sexually assaulted a 77-year-old woman in 1992 when she left her keys in her front door. He pushed his way into the home of a 57-year-old woman when she answered her door. He tried to take off her clothes but ran away when she screamed, according to a Spokane County Sheriff’s Office news release.
He asked to use the phone of an 80-year-old woman and grabbed her once inside her home. He ran off when she screamed for help. A 70-year-old woman discovered the screen missing from her window and Tillman’s fingerprints were found on the window frame, the news release said.
He also has a conviction for residential burglary in 1991. In that case he knocked on the door of a 65-year-old woman’s house, then broke in through a basement window when she refused to open the door. He broke out her living room window and ran away without assaulting her.