MOUNT VERNON — Prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Sexually Violent Predator Unit (SVP) are in Skagit County, fighting to prevent a dangerous sex offender from being unconditionally released into the community.
Gregory Coley, 36, has been convicted of one sexually violent offense — first-degree child molestation — as a juvenile in 1991.
In November 2002, Coley stipulated to the facts to the petition and to being a Sexually Violent Predator and was civilly committed to the state’s Special Commitment Center (SCC) on Mc Neil Island. Coley has been in total confinement at the SCC since the SVP petition was filed in 2001. In the interest of public safety, SVP prosecutors are seeking to prevent his unconditional release to the community.
Washington’s Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) law allows the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to petition for and defend the civil commitment of violent sex offenders who, because of a mental abnormality and/or personality disorder, are proven likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence if released.
In an unconditional release trial, the State of Washington has the burden to prove the respondent still meets the above criteria for being confined as a sexually violent predator.
The trial began this week in Skagit County Superior Court, and is expected to continue for two weeks.
In 1990, Washington became the first state in the nation to pass a law permitting the involuntary civil commitment of sex offenders after they serve their criminal sentences. The AGO’s SVP Unit was established shortly thereafter.
Read the entire press release by Peter Lavallee, Communications Director by clicking here: http://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/ag-prosecutors-seek-prevent-unconditional-release-skagit-county-sex-offender#sthash.WJ7CIciR.dpuf
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