Coe to spend 7 weeks at sex-predator jail as he awaits hearing

Kevin Coe, convicted of one of the rapes that terrorized Spokane's South Hill neighborhood a quarter-century ago, on Wednesday requested a transfer to a special prison for sexual predators, where he will spend a seven-week delay in the state's efforts to keep him in custody indefinitely.

Coe could spend the rest of his days at that prison if the state Attorney General's Office succeeds in efforts to label him a sexual deviant who is likely to commit more crimes.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O'Connor granted Coe's request to be detained at the special commitment center on McNeil Island and agreed to the delay in the probable-cause hearing to give his lawyers time to study more than 66,000 pages of documents submitted by the state to keep Coe in custody.

She set an Oct. 30 date for the probable-cause hearing, a first step in determining if Coe will remain in custody.

Coe's attorney, Tim Trageser, said his client would like to spend the delay at McNeil Island, in Puget Sound between Tacoma and Olympia, rather than at the Spokane County Jail.

As a civil facility, McNeil Island has much better living arrangements than a crowded county jail, including access to a computer, Trageser said. That will allow Coe a better opportunity to assist his court-appointed lawyers.

Coe, 59, has spent the past 25 years at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla on a rape conviction. He was scheduled to be released this Friday, but that has been delayed by the state's filing.

Coe has always maintained his innocence. While at the penitentiary, he refused to participate in prison therapy sessions that could have resulted in his early release or transfer to a lower-security prison.

Between 1978 and 1981, Spokane police attributed at least 43 sexual attacks to the so-called South Hill rapist, although more were reported.

Investigators arrested Coe in 1981, and he was charged with six of the rapes. A jury convicted him of four.

Those convictions were overturned on appeal because Spokane police detectives used hypnosis during interviews with witnesses. After a new trial, a second jury convicted Coe of three rapes in 1985.

The state Supreme Court then overturned two of those convictions in 1988, leaving Coe with a single conviction for first-degree rape.