Volatile offender faces 1st of 3 trials

The first of three trials for a sexually violent felon accused of a crime spree of killing, rape and assault is set to begin next week though it's still unclear whether Curtis Thompson — a volatile defendant who has threatened to kill attorneys and the judge, and has scuffled with jail guards — will be in the courtroom and how much physical restraint he will require.

Thompson, 49, has a history of violence — most of it involving sexual attacks against women.

In 1985, he was convicted of a string of four rapes during which he was armed with a gun and knives in the attacks on the female victims.

While in prison, he told a state psychologist in 2002 that his criminal behavior began at the age of 10 and included the sexual assault of young female relatives.

Thompson refused sex-offender treatment while in prison. Yet in October 2003, after a three-week civil-commitment trial, a King County jury rejected a plea from prosecutors to send Thompson to a secure treatment center for sexual offenders.

Thompson was being considered for the commitment after serving an 18-year sentence for the four rape convictions in 1985.

It was one of only a handful of times since the process was created in 1990 that a sexually violent predator was released into the public instead of sent to the state's Special Commitment Center after their incarceration.

Less than a year later, Thompson was arrested after a string of crimes. He faces 15 total charges in three separate cases that allegedly occurred within days of each other:

• On Aug. 23, 2004, Thompson allegedly approached a group of women at an apartment complex near the University of Washington, cornered two of the women in an elevator, robbed them and forced one to take off her shirt.

Blocking the women in the elevator, Thompson allegedly told one woman he would "kick her head through a wall" if she did not comply, beat a man who tried to intervene and assaulted two police officers, trying to grab one of their handguns, while they tried to take him into custody.

Thompson is charged with multiple counts of burglary, robbery, assault, attempted indecent liberties, unlawful imprisonment and attempting to disarm a police officer.

His trial in the case begins next week.

• Six days earlier, on Aug. 17, a 29-year-old woman in an Eastlake apartment woke up to a stranger covering her mouth with a bleach-soaked rag.

Police say the attacker, Thompson, then raped the woman several times, pouring bleach over her body afterward and leaving chemicals burns. He then allegedly drove away in the woman's car. Thompson is scheduled to go to trial in this case in November.

• On Aug. 26, 2004, Seattle police discovered the body of Deborah S. Byars, 45, who was stabbed to death in her apartment on 40th Avenue Northeast.

Medical experts believed Byars, who was disabled and used a wheelchair, had been stabbed with a screwdriver and had been dead three days before police found her.

Though he was a suspect since shortly after Byars' death, Thompson was not charged with first-degree murder until 2006.

The trial is scheduled for January.

Thompson's past behavior in court has prompted special protections for next week's trial, in which jury selection will begin Monday and opening statements could come as early as Wednesday.

A motion filed by Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Scott O'Toole lists more than a dozen instances during the past three years when Thompson exhibited "contemptuous, threatening and menacing" behavior at or on his way to and from court hearings. Thompson "has obstructed the orderly administration of justice," O'Toole wrote.

• At a January hearing, Thompson interrupted the judge, yelled at the court and threatened to kill his counsel. Thompson has repeatedly asked to have his publicly-appointed attorney, veteran defense lawyer John Hicks, taken off the case.

• At a July hearing, Thompson "announced his intention to verbally obstruct the court so as to make it impossible for the judge to speak," according to O'Toole's written motion, and had to be removed from the courtroom.

• During an October 2007 hearing, Thompson threatened to kill King County Superior Court Judge Gregory Canova, the prosecutor and his counsel.

• On the way into court for a 2005 hearing, Thompson attacked jail officers and had to be subdued by pepper spray and returned to the jail in a restraint chair.

An order issued last month by Judge Palmer Robinson directs King County Jail guards to use all necessary and reasonable force to compel Thompson's attendance in court.

The judge has directed Thompson — who is over 6 feet tall and has a muscular frame — to be brought to his trial in a restraint chair.

Jail guards will move him to a separate room where he would have to observe the trial through a video feed if he were to fail to stop any outbursts after an initial warning and additional restraints.

If he still disrupts the courthouse from the private room, or threatens anyone, Robinson said he would consider a motion to suspend Thompson's access to the video — and his trial — entirely.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com