The Washington state Attorney General’s Office has filed a petition to have 32-year-old Rupp Freece, a level three sex offender living in Mossyrock, involuntarily committed as a sexually violent predator.
State law defines a sexually violent predator as a person who has been convicted of or charged with a sexually violent crime and suffers from a mental abnormality or personality disorder which makes the person likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence if not confined in a secure facility.
This is not the first time the state petitioned to have Freece involuntarily committed. The attorney general’s office filed a similar petition in August 2018 after Freece finished a 57-month sentence for first-degree burglary and third-degree rape charges.
In that case, Freece was convicted for sexually assaulting a woman after she allowed him into her home to use the phone in November 2013.
A jury ruled against having Freece committed on allegations that he is a sexually violent predator on May 19, 2021, and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office issued a notice June 2, 2021, that Freece had returned to his address in the 100 block of Lakeside Drive in Mossyrock.
In February 2023, Freece was arrested on an attempted burglary charge for allegedly attempting to enter a Mossyrock residence while a woman and her children were inside.
He pleaded guilty to one count of gross misdemeanor harassment on April 20 and was sentenced that same day to 30 days of electronic home monitoring with credit for three days he spent in custody.
Freece’s sentence was scheduled to end on May 17, but the attorney general’s office filed the new petition for involuntary commitment on May 16, citing Freece’s “recent overt act” as reason to reconsider the jury’s ruling.
That petition included a request for Freece to be arrested on a no bail warrant, which a Lewis County Superior Court judge granted on May 18.
Freece was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail at 1 p.m. that same day.
The next day, Friday, May 19, Lewis County Superior Court Judge J. Andrew Toynbee granted a motion by Freece’s attorney, Paul Bankin, to delay the probable cause hearing until June 7.
Bankin advised the court Friday he had not yet met with Freece and said he wasn’t sure staff at the Lewis County Jail was aware of Freece’s need for medication.
Of the jail staff, Toynbee said, “I’m confident they will be receptive … and attentive to Mr. Freece’s needs.”
Freece will be held at the Lewis County Jail without bail until his preliminary hearing, which is scheduled for 4 p.m. on June 7.
