The Washington state Attorney General’s Office is seeking to civilly commit a convicted sex offender from Clark County to prevent his release into the community.
Michael Canty, 39, formerly of Battle Ground, was convicted in 2001 of indecent liberties with forcible compulsion and first-degree burglary with sexual motivation, according to a news release from the Attorney General’s Office.
Prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Sexually Violent Predator unit want to send Canty to the state’s Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island.
Before the Attorney General’s Office filed the petition for his civil commitment, Canty was scheduled to be released in August 2016. However, he’s been detained at the Special Commitment Center awaiting trial, which began earlier this week in Clark County Superior Court. It is expected to take about three weeks.
Under the state’s Sexually Violent Predator law, the Attorney General’s Office can petition for the involuntary commitment of violent sex offenders who, because of mental illness or a personality disorder, are found likely to re-offend if they are released.
The petition is based on allegations that have not yet been proven in court.
The lead attorney in Canty’s case is Assistant Attorney General Joshua Choate.
In 1990, Washington became the first state to pass a law permitting the involuntary civil commitment of sex offenders after they serve their criminal sentences. The Attorney General’s Office created its Sexually Violent Predator Unit shortly after.
The Sexually Violent Predator Unit prosecutes cases for all Washington counties, except King County, and there are currently 275 sex offenders in the state’s Special Commitment Program, according to the news release.
