SPOKANE — Joseph Aqui, the first man released from the state’s civil commitment program for sex predators, has been arrested for allegedly violating conditions of his release, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Aqui was taken into custody at his home in College Place near Walla Walla on Tuesday and taken to the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island near Tacoma, Department of Social and Health Services spokesman Steve Williams said.
Aqui is alleged to have used his home computer to access pornography and to have left the house on two occasions without a tracking device, violating conditions set by a King County Superior Court judge for his "less restrictive alternative" placement, Williams said.
Aqui has been living in his wife’s home since January 1997. His wife must escort him when he leaves the house.
Aqui’s case will be reviewed by a King County Superior Court judge to determine if conditions of his release should be modified or revoked.
Special Commitment Center Superintendent Mark Seling said there is no indication that the public was at risk from Aqui.
The commitment center is a mental health treatment program for convicted sex offenders who are civilly committed after completing their prison sentences.
Aqui is one of six former commitment center residents placed on less restrictive status by a court before DSHS began creating its own secure community transition facilities, or halfway houses.
U.S. District Judge William Dwyer ruled that sex offenders were not getting the basic treatment they needed to earn eventual release. The judge ordered Aqui’s release to a less restrictive confinement in January 1997.
Aqui was civilly committed to the center by a King County court in 1993 after spending nearly 20 years in prison for 15 rapes and seven attempted rapes.
The Community Protection Act of 1990 allows the state to involuntarily commit inmates deemed by civil juries to be "sexually violent predators" after they finish their prison sentences.
The alleged violations were not Aqui’s first.
He was arrested in April 2001 and accused of violating release conditions for having sex with women in his church and viewing computer pornography, Williams said.
"We thought that was a pretty serious violation," Williams said. "A judge sent him back home."
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