http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001761071_security08m0.html
Friday, October 10, 2003 - Page updated at 02:37 P.M.
Rapist moves in, worrying neighbors
By Christine Clarridge and Jonathan Martin
Seattle Times staff reporters
Like some of her neighbors, Caroline Simpson has spent a few sleepless nights since hearing over the weekend that a convicted rapist had just moved into her Bryant neighborhood in Northeast Seattle.
The university professor wasn't unsympathetic to the man's plight. After all, the man, Curtis Thompson, had done his time and had to find someplace to live ? in this case, it's with his mother.
And, Simpson says, she's known Thompson's mother for years and is sorry for the situation she finds herself in. "I felt so bad for her," Simpson said.
Yet she couldn't shake her fear.
So yesterday she did what a lot of her neighbors have done and arranged for the installation of a home-security system.
"I like to believe in second chances," said Simpson. "And I hope that he recovers fully, gets his life together and is a success story for the state of Washington. But what can I say, I have my doubts, and this is something we can do to feel safe."
A King County Superior Court jury on Friday rejected a plea from prosecutors to send Thompson ? convicted in 1985 of using a gun or a knife to rape four women ? to a secure treatment center for sexual offenders.
Experts for the prosecution testified during the three-week civil-commitment trial that Thompson, 44, was a sexual sadist, still harbored anger toward women and was at a high risk to reoffend.
Defense attorneys argued that Thompson had a record of exemplary behavior during his 18-year incarceration, including good relationships with several women who worked for the state Department of Corrections.
"They felt there was reasonable doubt about whether he would reoffend," said Anita Paulsen, one of Thompson's attorneys. Of the 185 current residents at the state's Special Commitment Center for sex offenders, 72 are awaiting commitment trials.
Since the process was created in 1990, only two other commitment trials, neither of them in King County, ended with the sex offender being released, said Sarah Sappington, a senior counsel with the Attorney General's Office, which handles trials for every county but King.
Although those men are guaranteed a trial within two months, nearly all waive the right, said Sappington.
Many of them hold out hope the controversial commitment process will be thrown out by an appeals court, but the U.S. Supreme Court has twice upheld Washington's law.
The average wait for a commitment trial outside King County is about two years, although Sappington is preparing to go to trial in November in the case of a Wenatchee man who has been held at the Special Commitment Center since 1995.
After Thompson's release, he told authorities he intended to live with his mother in her home in the Bryant neighborhood.
Police scrambled to notify residents.
On Sunday, a community meeting was held by police, who talked to neighbors about Thompson's crimes and what they can do to be safe.
Dozens of neighbors have called security companies or gone shopping to look for ways to further secure their windows and doors.
An employee of Security By Design in Seattle reported that several residents of the Bryant neighborhood have requested complete home-security systems, while others have requested the installation of such equipment as outdoor cameras or panic buttons in bedrooms.
Rick Keltner of American Veterans Security had just finished signing a contract with Caroline Simpson when he was flagged down by another neighbor.
"What happens is that something like this triggers the idea in people's minds that they're not doing all they should be doing," he said.
Another woman, who didn't want to be named, said she had made an appointment this week for an existing security system in her home to be reactivated.
"I've slept a total of six hours in the last three nights," she said. "I keep waking up and thinking that someone is in my room."
Even additional security may not be enough to reassure her. Her father is pressing her to sell the house and move on.
"It breaks my heart because I love this neighborhood, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to feel safe here again," she said.
Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or [email protected]; Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or [email protected]
