Violent predator's freedom would be a first

SHELTON, Mason County — Gary E. Cherry lives a quiet life in Shelton with a devoted wife and two children. He works as a mechanic and bowhunts with his best friend.

But the 49-year-old Cherry is far from average. He's a thrice-convicted rapist, and one of fewer than 300 men in Washington to be labeled a "sexually violent predator."

And as early as next month, Cherry could have an even rarer distinction: he would be the first person ever to fully graduate from the state's Special Commitment Center for sex offenders on McNeil Island and become a completely free man.

It would make Cherry a high-stakes test case for the state. In its 17-year history, no other resident has gained the SCC's full backing for an unconditional discharge. Cherry has gone through eight years of intense treatment at a cost to the public of about $1.2 million.

"If he fails, it would be devastating to the public perception of treatment and the hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel," said Henry Richards, the SCC's superintendent. "It's unfair, but that's the reality of how it's being viewed."

But Mason County Sheriff Casey Salisbury says he'll be watching Cherry closely.

"I don't think you can ever fix that sort of thing," Salisbury said. "I'm just not buying this stuff [treatment] will make you better."

A history of rape

Cherry was first convicted of rape in 1979 after he raped a woman on an isolated road in Grays Harbor County.

Two other rape convictions followed in 1986 and 1990, also involving strangers and also involving force. He later admitted he'd raped 15 women, committed voyeurism 20 times and made 1,000 obscene phone calls, his court records show.

Just before he was due to get out of prison in 1999, the state moved to send him to the SCC as a sexually violent predator.

Because no one has ever been unconditionally released with the full SCC approval that Cherry has gained, officials say there's no way to predict his chances of reoffending. But a study of 135 other sex offenders in Washington — men who were seriously considered for the SCC but ultimately not sent there — found that half of them committed another felony within six years. Twenty-three percent of the 135 were convicted of a new sex crime.

"They simply cannot fail"

Since the SCC was created in 1990 to treat sex predators, it has been dogged by criticism that the lack of "graduates" shows that its treatment programs are a sham. That accusation helped prompt 13 years of federal-court oversight.

But the exit door has remained mostly closed. Just two residents have been unconditionally released, but neither with the full support of SCC.

Brian Judd, an Olympia therapist who has worked with Cherry since 2004, said sexual deviancy can be managed the same way an alcoholic abstains from booze. Though Judd declined to speak specifically about Cherry, he said SCC residents like him know "they simply cannot fail."

Richards, the SCC superintendent, said the sex-predator law allows the state to hold people only if their chance of reoffending is 50 percent or higher, a threshold Cherry has been deemed to be below.

"The law requires release when there's still significant risk," Richards said. "They don't require you to wait until the risk is minimal."

"A very understanding woman"

Cherry has been allowed to be home since 2004, as long as he followed 48 conditions, including wearing a satellite-locator bracelet and having a preapproved chaperone with him for most trips out of the home.

If the discharge is granted at a Feb. 8 hearing in Mason County, he won't have to follow those conditions anymore, although he will have to register as a sex offender.

An annual SCC evaluation filed in court earlier this year says he has worked to check his "psychopathic" impulses with the help of his wife, employer and friends, all of whom declined to comment.

Cherry said in his evaluation that his wife, whom he married in 1984, is a "a very understanding woman." They have a daughter, 17, who lives at home and knows of her father's history, and a son, 22, who acts as his chaperone on fishing trips.

Cherry's wife described her husband as an attentive mate who shares everything — even his attraction to other women. "We don't really ever fight," she said for the evaluation.

But Cherry's community-corrections officer, Robert McIntosh, said he was uneasy about Cherry because of an incident last June when schoolchildren accused Cherry of yelling and chasing them in front of his home. The allegations were quickly deemed baseless by a prosecutor, but McIntosh thought they were dismissed too quickly.

"People seem to be running from the liability," McIntosh told the SCC evaluator.

Cherry himself told the evaluator he is so conscious of his behavior that he will avoid women and children in a grocery store. If granted full release, Cherry told the evaluator, he would rely on his wife to monitor his behavior.

"Ask me anything," Cherry said. "I'm an open book."

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com