The state is seeking to indefinitely commit a Clark County sex offender who was convicted of two child sex crimes between 1982 and 1998.
Richard Hatfield, 62, is on trial this week in Clark County Superior Court for the civil commitment, though he has waived his right to be present.
Judge Robert Lewis must determine whether Hatfield has a mental abnormality or personality disorder that is likely to cause him to commit future “predatory acts of sexual violence” and should be civilly committed, said Janelle Guthrie, a spokeswoman in the Washington Attorney General’s Office.
“We believe he is unable to control his sexually violent behavior,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie said Hatfield’s trial is unusual in that it will be decided by a judge and not a jury.
Hatfield was convicted of attempted lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor younger than 14 in 1982 in California and first-degree child molestation in 1998 in Clark County. In addition to his conviction record, Hatfield has admitted to sex offenses against another 70 victims, which were never reported or prosecuted, Assistant Attorney General Jeremy Bartels wrote in court documents.
He was released from prison in February 2012 but has been confined at the state’s Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island pending his civil commitment trial.
Forensic psychologist Henry Richards of Seattle testified Wednesday that Hatfield exhibits the characteristics, which are the legal criteria for classification as a sexually violent predator. He has been convicted of sexually violent crimes, he has a mental abnormality or personality disorder — pedophilia — and he is more than likely to commit sexually violent crimes in the future, Richards said.
Richards said he used a variety of psychological assessment methods and Hatfield’s history to reach his conclusion.
Hatfield’s attorneys, Rachel Forde and Christine Sanders, are likely to present their case beginning Friday, Forde said.
The state filed a petition in February 2012 alleging that Hatfield is a sexually violent predator as defined by state law.
According to court records, Hatfield molested two children, ages 10 and 11, in February 1998 at Vancouver’s Arnold Park, which is near the crossroads of state Highway 500 and St. Johns Boulevard in the Minnehaha neighborhood. He encountered the boys as they and some of their friends were changing clothes under a bridge by a swimming hole near a section of the city’s 4-mile Discovery Trail, which passes through the park.
Days later, the boys said they encountered Hatfield again at the park. Hatfield lured them away from the trail to his “fort” in the woods, where he molested the 11-year-old. He also attempted to expose himself to the boys, Bartels wrote in court documents.
Hatfield in March 1998 was charged with one count of first-degree child molestation, three counts of luring and two counts of felony communication with a minor for immoral purposes. In a plea agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in April 1998 to only one count of first-degree child molestation and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. At that point, he already had a long history of inappropriate conduct with children and a failure to receive counseling for his problem, Bartels wrote.
He was convicted in April 1982 of attempted lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor in Fresno County, Calif. He lured the 14-year-old victim in that case by “using a bicycle he had in his trunk as a conversation piece” and then invited him to play pinball, Bartels wrote. Instead, Hatfield drove the victim to a field with a bicycle ramp and attempted to sexually assault him. The victim was able to escape and call police.
Hatfield was charged in March 1982 with lewd and lascivious acts upon a child younger than 14 and assault with intent to commit oral copulation. He pleaded guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious acts upon a child as part of a plea deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Another charge of Hatfield’s solicitation of another minor also was dismissed as part of the deal, Bartels wrote.
Hatfield also was convicted in September 1997 of supplying liquor to a minor at a treehouse he maintained.
He admitted to law enforcement that “the construction of the treehouse was the beginning of …making his sexual fantasies about male children a reality,” Bartels wrote.
He also was convicted of indecent solicitation of a minor in Wichita, Kan., in July 1980, solicitation of a minor in Fresno County, Calif, in November 1979, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Fresno County, Calif., in September 1984. There was an initial report of child molestation and luring in the 1984 incident, according to court records.
In 2013, 16 sex offenders in the state were civilly committed as sexually violent predators, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
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