OLYMPIA, Wash – Despite plans for the state to drop its request to hold him indefinitely, the man known as the South Hill Rapist will likely stay in a mental health facility until a scheduled hearing in early October.
As 4 News Now reported last week, Coe has petitioned to be released from the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. The facility is not a prison, it’s a facility run by the Department of Social and Health Services.
The state can petition for offenders like Coe to be committed there indefinitely if they’re classified as sexually violent predators.
Because of his age and health, the state now believes it can’t meet the burden of proof necessary to hold him there.
A hearing on his potential release is planned for October 2nd in Spokane. Another hearing is scheduled for Friday of this week, when attorneys will discuss how statements from Coe’s victims could play a role in the October hearing.
Mike Faulk, deputy communications director for the Washington Attorney General’s Office, told 4 News Now that “as it stands, nothing would happen prior to Oct 2nd.”
Coe has lived at the SCC for 17 years. Prior to that, he served 25 years at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
While suspected of more than 50 sexual assaults on women in Spokane in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Coe was ultimately convicted of just one.
That’s in part because Spokane Police investigators used hypnosis when they questioned several of the victims.
Coe has never admitted guilt and has never sought mental health treatment.
A state evaluation determined Coe was “feeble” and in poor health at the age of 77 and that would likely prohibit him from reoffending.
He’s petitioning to live in an adult care facility in Spanaway, Washington where the owner of the home says Coe would have to follow extremely strict guidelines.
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