Shackled defendant takes the stand for alleged crime spree

Curtis Thompson said he was tired of police, prosecutors and witnesses ganging up against him and spewing "lies" to the jury in the first of his three trials for murder, rape and assault.

Shackled to his chair and flanked by security staff, Thompson testified Monday as his trial on numerous charges — burglary, robbery, assault, attempted indecent liberties, unlawful imprisonment and attempting to disarm a police officer — neared its close in King County Superior Court.

He said the charges stem from a misunderstanding with two women who say he forced them into an elevator, robbed one of her engagement ring and forced the other to remove her top.

Thompson, 49, angrily testified that he didn't have the "intent of hurting nobody" the night of Aug. 23, 2004. He was drunk, he said, and just wanted a cigarette — though he doesn't smoke.

"I believe, being intoxicated, that I was looking for a party," Thompson recalled. "I might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Thompson said he was riding his bicycle in Seattle's University District after drinking when he came upon a group of women. He followed the women into an apartment building, according to court testimony.

The women told Thompson to leave, but he continued to follow them, according to Seattle police. The two women ran to the elevator, but Thompson reached it before the doors closed, police said.

Police said Thompson punched a resident of the building who tried to intervene, but Thompson denied it.

"At the time I was 6-3, 220 pounds. If I was socking people they would have been seriously hurt," he testified.

Thompson ordered one of the women to remove her shirt. He was angry, he said, because she'd attempted to kick him in the groin.

"I was thinking, how can I humiliate her, how can I get her to calm down?"

Thompson said he had no intention of sexually assaulting either woman.

When one of the women saw her chance, she fled the building. Outside, Thompson got into a fight with police and tried to grab one officer's gun, according to court testimony.

Thompson testified that he has trouble when he drinks and wasn't thinking rationally that night. He accused Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole of withholding evidence and Seattle police of lying about his actions.

In court, Thompson is in a restraint chair because of his often-disruptive behavior. He has threatened to kill attorneys and a judge, and has scuffled with jail guards.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating today.

Thompson faces up to life in prison if convicted because of his criminal history.

In 1985, he was convicted of four rapes. He refused sex-offender treatment in prison.

In October 2003, after a three-week trial, a King County jury rejected a plea from prosecutors to send Thompson to a secure treatment center for sexual offenders. It was one of 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 incarceration.

Less than a year later, Thompson was arrested after he allegedly committed a string of crimes, including the attack in the Seattle elevator. He faces 15 total charges in three separate cases that allegedly occurred within days.

Thompson is slated to return to court in November to face trial for allegedly raping an Eastlake woman on Aug. 17, 2004.

In January, he will be tried in the stabbing death of Deborah Byars, who was found dead in her North Seattle apartment Aug. 26, 2004.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.