Civil Commitment for Coe?

The state is seeking to commit Kevin Coe as a sexual predator. Although Spokane police believed him to have raped over 40 women and girls from 1978 to 1981, only one conviction stood, and he was due to be released this month. Coe, who maintains his innocence, has refused to meet with counselors or the state's evaluator. State is fighting to keep infamous rapist locked up, Seattle Times, Aug. 31, 2006; Rape victim tells her story: "He's always right there," Seattle Times, Sept. 3, 2006.

Coe's case went to the Washington Supreme Court twice:

• State v. Coe, 101 Wash.2d 772, 684 P.2d 668 (1984), Westlaw (ordering a new trial because of "accumulated evidentiary errors," including admission of testimony of girlfriend about sexual practices, cross-examination of Coe about fiction he wrote, and admission of certain testimony by victims who had been hypnotized).
• State v. Coe, 109 Wash.2d 832, 750 P.2d 208 (1988), Westlaw (reversing two convictions because of admission of post-hypnotic identification testimony)(four justices dissented).

Coe's case achieved national fame as the subject of a true-crime book and a TV movie (starring Elzabeth Montgomery):

• Jack Olsen, Son: A Psychopath and His Victims, HV6565.W2 O47 1983 at Good Reads.
• Sins of the Mother (CBS 1981).

Thanks to Mary Hotchkiss.

Filed in: Coe, civil-commitment, sex-offenders, Hotchkiss