State Attorney General’s Office seeks to commit local sex offender

The state Attorney General’s Office has filed a petition in Clark County Superior Court seeking to involuntarily commit a local sex offender to prevent him from being released back into the community.

The petition was filed Dec. 8, prior to Dale Pittman’s scheduled release for his Washington offenses. Pittman, 48, was convicted of indecent liberties in Clark County in 2007 and sexual assault in Montana in 1994, according to a news release from the Attorney General’s Office.

Washington’s Sexually Violent Predator law allows the Attorney General’s Office to petition for the civil commitment of violent sex offenders who, due to a mental abnormality or personality disorder, are proven to likely re-offend if they are released.

A judge found probable cause to detain Pittman pending a trial to determine if he should be committed as a sexually violent predator. A trial date has not yet been set, the news release said.

In 1990, Washington became the first state to pass a law permitting the civil commitment of sex offenders after they serve their prison sentences. The Attorney General’s Office’s Sexually Violent Predator Unit prosecutes cases for all of the state’s counties, except King County.

As of Oct. 5, 282 sex offenders are in the state’s Special Commitment Program, according to the news release.