Fourth Day of Testimony for Kevin Coe Civil Commitment Trial Underway

Spokane, Washington -- Day 4 of the Kevin Coe Civil Commitment Trial has continued with questioning of people involved in the cases surrounding allegations and offenses of crimes that Coe committed in Spokane, Washington between 1978 and 1981. Often referred to as the South Hill Rapist, Kevin Coe was arrested on suspicion of committing 43 rapes during that time-frame, and was put on trial in 1981 for several of the alleged offenses.

Originally convicted of only 3 counts, two were later tossed out for lack of sufficient evidence by the Supreme Court in 1988; despite Coe being picked out of police line-ups, but 1 case remain upheld. With that conviction came a 25-year sentence to be spent in prison. Though he was up for parole starting in 1992, he never went to any parole hearings, and finished out his sentence on September 8th, 2006. At that point, motions and paperwork was filed by the State of Washington to confine Coe indefinitely under a "civil commitment" statute which would define him as a "sexually violent predator" and thus keep him incarcerated. 44 cases remain under investigation in regards to sexual assaults where Coe is suspected to be the culprit.

It took a while to move through jury selection for the trial, and when both the prosecution and the defense were satisfied with the selection, the trial finally got under-way. On Wednesday, during Day 3 of the trial, many of alleged victims from the crime-spree testified, including the woman from which Coe received his one conviction that still stands. The hope of prosecution is to put in the mind of the jurors that Coe is still a threat to the public, and that a lack of physical evidence should not over-ride witness accounts that Coe did indeed commit more crimes than he has been convicted for. The defense is arguing that Coe no longer poses a threat to society, and should be released after serving the maximum amount of time for the offense that he was convicted. Through all of this, Kevin Coe is maintaining that he is innocent of all crimes, and that he is not the South Hill Rapist as the media and police have denoted him as being.