http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/401457_thompson26.html
Last updated February 25, 2009 11:26 p.m. PT
Serial rapist takes stand, claims he's the victim
By LEVI PULKKINEN
P-I REPORTER
It would come as a surprise to the six Seattle women he's been convicted of attacking, or the family of another he's accused of killing, but Curtis Thompson is a victim.
At least according to him.
"Are you the victim here?" Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole asked Thompson, as the convicted serial rapist again faced a jury Wednesday on charges of burglary, car theft and first-degree rape related to a 2004 attack.
"In a sense, yeah," Thompson answered, shackled and seated at the defense table. "You want a list of how long the government has been oppressing me?"
In an unusual move, Thompson took the stand in his own defense hoping to convince a King County jury that prosecutors erred in accusing him of raping a woman at her Eastlake neighborhood home before dousing her with bleach to obscure the crime.
Thompson made a similar effort during a September trial in which he was accused of trying to sexually assault two women in the elevator at a University District apartment building. It didn't go well for him -- he was convicted of 10 of 11 counts against him, and likely will be confined indefinitely regardless of the current case's outcome.
Prosecutors also have charged Thompson in the death of Deborah Byars, who was found dead in her Ravenna home in August 2004. In that case, prosecutors assert that Thompson stabbed the mother of two in the back of the head with a screwdriver after accosting her in her home.
Addressing the jury Wednesday, Thompson made clear his disgust with authorities, which apparently stemmed from his 1985 arrest and subsequent conviction for four violent rapes in the Seattle area. Thompson served 18 years of a 25-year sentence before his release in 2003.
At that time, prosecutors sought to confine Thompson indefinitely at a state center for violent sexual predators. He was released after a jury found that he did not meet the criteria for civil commitment.
In court, O'Toole asserted that, less than a year after his release, Thompson resumed his attacks on women. On Aug. 17, 2004, O'Toole argued, Thompson broke into the woman's Eastlake home and attacked her in a manner similar to the four earlier attacks.
Questioned by his attorney, Thompson described himself as a man under attack by the world. Following his release, Thompson complained, his family, church and community turned against him.
Thompson went on to compare his plight -- he faces what could amount to a life-sentence in the current case -- to that of the Native Americans, slaves and those accused of witchcraft in Salem.
For reasons not disclosed, Thompson's attorneys held a brief closed-door session with Judge Palmer Robinson before he took the stand. Thompson has frequently demanded that defense attorney John Hicks be removed from the case.
As several of his victims from previous cases looked on from the courtroom gallery, Thompson struggled to explain how he could tell a 2003 jury that he took "wholehearted" responsibility for the earlier attacks while denying them entirely in the current case. Under steady questioning from O'Toole, Thompson let slip his theory on what differentiates women from men.
Women desiring physical intimacy, Thompson told the jury, need only offer the same to receive it.
"What's a man use?" he asked rhetorically, his flat, bass voice rising. "Sometimes, he uses force. That's what a man does."
Continuing, Thompson argued that he deserves forgiveness for the earlier offenses he now denies.
"Should a person be given a second chance?" Thompson asked jurors. "Apparently not."
The decision as to whether Thompson receives yet another chance will fall to the jury Thursday, when attorneys on both sides are expected to offer closing arguments. He is scheduled to stand trial in Byars' death following the conclusion of the present case.
P-I reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or [email protected].
