Sex offender halfway house opens

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — The state’s controversial new halfway house for sex offenders got its first resident Friday, a King County man convicted of kidnapping and taking indecent liberties with young boys.

David Wrathall, 35, moved about two miles from the state’s Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island to a temporary halfway house — called a Secure Community Transition Facility — in another area of the island.

"He seems very upbeat and happy about it," said Steve Williams, a spokesman for the Department of Social and Health Services. "He’ll be cooking his own dinner tonight and watching some sports on TV."

Wrathall will be under 24-hour supervision, but he will be allowed to leave the island with an escort for treatment, work and education. He was allowed to move to the halfway house after completing six levels of sex-offender treatment, Williams said.

"The idea is to begin his transition back into normal life," Williams said.

The 24-bed McNeil Island halfway house is an uneasy compromise that springs from a long-running conflict over what to do with dangerous sex predators who have served their criminal sentences.

A federal judge has ruled the state cannot simply warehouse such offenders in the civil commitment center, but must provide a less restrictive alternative for those who make progress in treatment.

The state tried to site smaller halfway houses around Washington, but strong opposition from locals prompted Gov. Gary Locke and the Legislature to opt for a single center on McNeil Island, which already holds a state prison and the special commitment center. Lawmakers approved the plan over loud objections from Pierce County officials.

The state is building a new commitment center and a new halfway house near the existing building where Wrathall will be housed, Williams said. The existing commitment center is in a wing of the prison.

Wrathall has a 1995 conviction for second-degree kidnapping of a Snohomish County boy and a 1985 indecent liberties and attempted indecent liberties conviction for assaulting two boys in Seattle.

He was registered Friday in Pierce County as a Level 3 sex offender — marking him as potentially violent and likely to reoffend. County officials are sending letters to McNeil Island residents, notifying law enforcement agencies and posting information about him on the sheriff’s department sex offender Web site.

Schools may also be notified if necessary, said Pierce County sheriff’s Detective Keith Barnes, runs the county’s sex offender registration and notification program.

"We’re as ready as we can be," Barnes said. "We’ve taken all the precautions that we can project. This is all new ground we’re on."

King County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Learned agreed last month to release Wrathall into the halfway house. Her order includes conditions for that release, such as 24-hour electronic monitoring and escorts when he leaves the halfway house.

Wrathall was civilly committed into the sex predator program in 1996 after finishing a prison sentence for the Snohomish County kidnapping.

While working as an ice cream vendor, he was known for giving young boys free ice cream in exchange for playing tie-up games. One mother contacted police after Wrathall put her son in the truck’s freezer and drove around the block before releasing the 8-year-old.

The 1985 conviction involved assaults on two boys whom Wrathall baby-sat.