A jury has voted not to commit Rupp Freece, a level three sex offender convicted in 2013 for raping a woman in her Winlock apartment, for involuntary treatment.
He was officially released from custody on May 19.
The ruling comes nearly three years after the Washington state Attorney General’s Office filed a petition to civilly commit Freece under allegations that he is a sexual predator — defined in state law as a person “who has been convicted of or charged with a crime of sexual violence and who 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.”
A Washington state law passed in 1990 allows the Attorney General’s Office to petition for violent sex offenders who meet the state’s definition for a sexually violent predator to be involuntarily detained at a secure state-run facility “for control, care and treatment” until the defendant “no longer meets the definition of a sexually violent predator.”
Freece was convicted on first-degree burglary and third-degree rape charges in November 2013 and was sentenced to 57 months in jail. He was scheduled to be released on Aug. 10, 2018, but due to the civil commitment case, which was filed Aug. 8, 2018, and a judge’s finding that there was probable cause to believe Freece was a sexually violent predator, he remained in custody until Wednesday.
The Attorney General’s Office had alleged that the first-degree burglary charge was sexually motivated because Freece “remained (in the apartment) unlawfully with the intent of assaulting the adult female victim who lived there for the purposes of his sexual gratification,” according to court documents.
On Wednesday, a 12-person jury was asked if the state had proven “beyond a reasonable doubt that Rupp Freece is a sexually violent predator.”
The jury ruled that the state had not, and the court issued an order for Freece’s release.
Freece is officially registered as a level three sex offender in Lewis County and resides in the 100 block of Lakeside Drive in Mossyrock.
In addition to the 2013 case, Freece was convicted for communication with a minor for immoral purposes in 2012.
