UPDATE: October 2 at 12:48 p.m.
Kevin Coe was released from the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island at noon today, the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) confirmed to NonStop Local.
DSHS said that Coe will be transferred to Win Win Adult Family Home in the south Puget Sound Area. He will have to register as a sex offender for life.
SPOKANE, Wash. — The courtroom was full Thursday for a civil hearing that ended with South Hill rapist, Kevin Coe, ordered to be released. Neither side in the legal proceedings disputed his release.
State law says Coe will be released within 24 hours. He will be on a boat off the island likely by Thursday afternoon and he will head to an adult assisted living facility in western Washington. He will have to register as a sex offender.
Women who said they were raped by Coe and their loved ones filled one side of the room, others joined virtually. Coe was not present in person.
Coe was accused of committing dozens of vicious sexual assaults from the late 1970’s to early 1980’s. After two criminal trials and convictions being thrown out due to inadmissible evidence, only a charge for one sexual attack remained. Coe served the maximum sentence for that assault.
After his time in prison was up, civil proceedings began in 2006. Coe was committed to McNeil Island for sexually violent predators. Due to his age and declining health, experts say he now longer fits the criteria. His time there is now up.
“Release is not in dispute,” Judge Julie McKay said.
Judge McKay addressed the room by reiterating that Thursday’s hearing was not a trial, saying it is in essence dismal proceedings that ensure Coe would be released. She spoke on deciding to allow victim impact statements while delicately relaying that based on the law, she had to sign off on Coe’s release.
“The court specifically, myself specially are not trying to cause more trauma. At the end of your statements, I don’t have a choice (whether to release Kevin Coe),” McKay said.
Jude McKay used her discretion to allow women who say Coe attacked them to address the court. Multiple did.
“You go through everything again. It’s a re-rape,” one of the women told the court. “Because when you are raped, the minute you get up and walk home, your survival days begin.”
She said advocates have relayed that their statements at the hearing wouldn’t change the fact that Coe will be released. She spoke on how poorly she believes everything has been handled since they first found out about Coe’s likely release back in April.
“It’s a really difficult thing coming up with a victim impact statement that we know will have no impact, we know that,” she said. “The man never spent one day in jail for what he did to me. Not one.”
Coe has never been convicted for attacking any of the women who spoke at Thursday’s hearing.
But she’s been forever plagued by the horror of what happened. She’s been tormented by nightmares.
“An animal who crashed into me,” she said. “And he crashed into me many more nights after that.”
She told the court Coe is a manipulator.
“Being a psychopath doesn’t go away with old age,” she said. “He is psychopath, narcissistic liar who never once said ‘I did this.’ I’d have a different speech today had he done that.”
The next woman told the court she suffers from PTSD. She was just 20 when Coe raped her, she said.
“The questions he asked me still haunt me to this day,” she said. “He told me if I called the police he’d kill me. He’d kill my family. Now that he’s free…he can do that. And I am scared.”
“I know you don’t have the right to do anything to him, I understand that,” she said to the judge.
She then wrote a letter she wrote specifically to Kevin Coe.
“You are the worst of the worst to ever hit Spokane,” she said. “What you did to me; you striped my innocence. I get flash backs. I get scared. I have very little trust in men or humanity. You have made me a shell with nothing inside but darkness.”
“You need to be castrated with a dull, rusty knife,” the woman said. “I wish you were dead. That’s all I gotta say.”
The next woman to address the court said her rape was June 20, 1980. She said she has relied deeply on her faith. She asked Coe to ask God for forgiveness.
“My impact statement is different than what you have heard her today…I believe because I forgave, it unlocked the chains that had me bound…I think the forgiveness freed me to live a life that is different than the other victims because it set me free.”
She added that she believes he needs God.
“Even though he’s been locked up I still don’t think it was enough.”
The final victim told the court she was attacked September 9, 1979.
“Coe beat me, almost to death … especially my face and raped me and left me for dead in a field,” she said.
She said she vowed to live a life dedicated to helping victims get resources to help them heal.
“We are survivors. If we were able to talk to (Kevin Coe) in person, I would beg him to get help…to ask for forgiveness.”
“I too have forgiven him. I too feel free. It has allowed me to live a good life.”
After the women addressed the court, orders signed by both parties were presented regarding Coe’s release. It’s believed he will go to an adult care facility in Western Washington.
“I will leave her with a hole in my stomach and a hurt heart,” Judge McKay said. “I thank you all for coming and having the courage to be here today.”
The dismissal order is without prejudice, meaning the state could refile the case if it believes evidence has changed.
