A Walla Walla County jury has ordered a man — whom state prosecutors say is a sexually violent predator — to remain in civil commitment.
Justin Mackey, 42, was found by the jury to have a mental condition that makes him likely to commit predatory sexual crimes, according to a news release from the Washington Attorney General's Office.
The jury returned its verdict Nov. 18 at Walla Walla County Superior Court.
Since 1990, Washington state law has allowed the state Attorney General's Office to petition for civil commitment for any violent sex offender who has a mental or personality disorder that makes that offender likely to engage in sexually violent acts.
Trials are required in such cases, and the burden of proof belongs to the state.
Mackey, who has multiple convictions of sex crimes against children, has been civilly committed at the state's Special Commitment Center in Lakebay, Washington, since 2008.
According to court records, in 1993 while still a minor, Mackey was convicted of three counts of first-degree rape of a child in Walla Walla County. He was sentenced to three 21- to 23-week sentences, to run consecutively.
In 1996, he was convicted of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes in Yakima County, according to court documents. He avoided jail time in that conviction.
Finally, in 2002, he was convicted of third-degree child molestation in Walla Walla County and sentenced to five years in prison, according to court documents.
Upon release, prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office successfully civilly committed Mackey.
This year, Mackey requested release and was granted another trial.
The trial was presided over by Walla Walla County Superior Court Judge Brandon L. Johnson.
