April 12 — City’s fight four years ago prevented a current sex offender problem

It could have happened in Puyallup. Convicted child rapist Casper Ross was found in a sexual situation with his female counselor last week. But the city of Puyallup took a tough stance four years ago and denied the level three sex offender an extended visitation in Puyallup with his parents. Instead, the incident occurred in Lakewood. Despite assurances from the Department of Corrections that Ross could assimilate into the Puyallup community with little difficulty, the city said no. The DOC issued 28 provisions for his less restrictive alternative release, where he would live in a transitional house on McNeil Island and visit Puyallup under DSHS supervision, but Puyallup didn’t think that was strict enough. Primarily, the city wasn’t convinced that Ross’ parents, who he had lived with when he raped a 12-year-old girl while holding a knife to her throat in 1987, would be able to give their grown son adequate supervision. His brother, who had been his co-defendant in the past, was on active supervision in Oregon and another brother was also serving time on McNeil Island for rape and domestic violence. Plus, city attorneys said, his mother was already complaining that her son was being treated unfairly to have to live as a level three sex offender. The city was also concerned because he had admitted to committing a total of six rapes and didn’t seem to show any remorse. They didn’t want him to come to this community because they thought he showed too many indicators that he would be a repeat offender and a potential danger to residents. If it was decided that this is where he was heading, they wanted to make sure to they were able to keep track of him. It’s a good thing that Puyallup put up such a fight and won. He was allowed to visit a relative in Lakewood instead of Puyallup. The female counselor who was supposed to be supervising all of the sex offender’s interactions with the community appears to have been sleeping with him instead, leaving anyone he encountered in Lakewood rather vulnerable. It’s difficult to understand why a trained professional who knows about his violent sexual past would compromise her career, but we’re just glad he wasn’t here and won’t be any time soon.