Spokane Gets Its First Sexual Predator Case State Wants To Lock Up Man It Thinks Will Offend Again

Robin Albrecht’s last six years have been a string of failed efforts to find one place and call it home.

Convicted three times since 1971 of sexual assaults against children, the 50-year-old Albrecht sits in a Spokane jail cell unsure if his next address will be his last.

State authorities have identified him as a violent sexual predator - a “classic groomer” who targets young children.

Albrecht faces a July 27 trial in Spokane, the first here based on Washington’s 1990 law that lets the state lock up people considered likely to commit more sex crimes.

Though Albrecht isn’t charged with a crime, state attorneys are arguing that the community isn’t safe if he’s free to move around.

If a jury finds he’s a sexual predator, the state will confine him indefinitely at the Special Commitment Center in Monroe, Wash.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Bowers doesn’t have to prove the crimes Albrecht has been convicted of, just convince jurors that he’s a dangerous pedophile.

“At this point I know him better than his mother does. Probably better than Mr. Albrecht knows himself,” Bowers said.

“Based on medical reports, psychological exams and prison evaluations we’ve found going back to 1971, he’s someone who can’t be trusted to control his behavior.”

Albrecht’s attorney, Maryann Moreno, says the sexual predator law - one of eight of its kind in the nation - often turns commitment into an unfair life sentence.

While Moreno concedes Albrecht has emotional and psychological problems, she said he isn’t a predator.

“The predator law in theory is a good one,” Moreno said. “In practice, it’s real scary in terms of giving the state the freedom to decide when you get out or not.”

“Whether it’s a life sentence depends on Albrecht,” said Bowers, who noted that offenders sent to the Special Commitment Center aren’t required to get treatment.

Since 1990, when Washington became the first state to adopt a predator law, 33 people have been committed. Thirty-two have been men.

So far, only one - Joseph Aqui of Walla Walla - has been diagnosed as “cured.” He was released last year and continues receiving regular supervision.

Until last summer, the fate of the sexual predator cases was uncertain. After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Washington law, cases like Albrecht’s headed to trial. Thirty-two other sex offenders are facing civil commitment trials.

Besides Albrecht, the only other Spokane man on the list is Herman Paschke, a twice-convicted rapist now in prison.

Paschke was targeted for commitment by a committee that reviews every state sex offender before their release. That group is made up of psychologists, social workers and victims’ advocates.

Finding Paschke too dangerous to be set free, the committee notified him a week before he was due to leave prison that he belonged in civil commitment. His Spokane County commitment trial has not been scheduled.

Albrecht’s case took a more unusual route.

In July 1996, he completed a four-year prison term after pleading guilty to molesting a 6-year-old girl.

After he decided to move to a Tacoma halfway house, police tacked up posters and photos there identifying him as a Level 3 offender and child molester. Level 3 offenders are considered most likely to reoffend. Within weeks after his release, police said Albrecht approached two boys and and offered them money if they followed him.

The boys, 13 and 12, refused the offer. They told their parents about the encounter, saying they recognized the man from the warning posters hanging in their apartment complex.

Albrecht was arrested, triggering the commitment proceedings.

“Mr. Albrecht is a classic groomer,” said Bowers, meaning a pedophile who gradually establishes trust in his victims by buying them food or befriending them.

Albrecht told psychiatrists in a 1976 interview that he felt “more comfortable” with children than adults.

He attributed that to having alopecia, a disease that has left him hairless since childhood. The condition has made him the frequent butt of jokes and insults.

He also told them his 1976 Spokane conviction for indecent liberties - involving two 11-year-olds and a 5-year-old - resulted from his being around the children often.

“I became real close to the family. The kids always got very little from their folks. I would buy things for ‘em, like pizza. Or I’d do things like taking them to a show,” according to a transcript of the interview.

Albrecht was convicted in Spokane of sex crimes against five children.

Four were girls. The youngest was 5; the oldest were 11.

In 1971, Albrecht, then 23, pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a 9-year-old girl. He was sent to jail for six months.

Five years later, he pleaded guilty to felony indecent liberties for sexual assaults against a 5-year-old girl, and her twin brother and sister, both 11.

He was sentenced to five years in prison and was paroled after serving four.

In 1992, Albrecht was convicted of molesting a 6-year-old Spokane girl. He was about to be released in 1996 when Deer Park residents learned he was scheduled to move there and live in a halfway house. In the face of angry protests, state officials allowed Albrecht to change plans and move to Tacoma.

All of Albrecht’s Spokane victims are willing to testify at the upcoming commitment trial, Bowers said. “For most, it’s a healing experience.”

His Seattle-based unit handles all predator commitment cases, except those in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. Those counties have deputy prosecutors assigned to commitments.

Bowers said he approaches the trials like a death penalty case. “The stakes are very high. You have a lot of work to cover in your investigations,” he said.

Commitment trials don’t follow the same courtroom guidelines of criminal or civil proceedings.

Albrecht doesn’t face criminal charges, but the state has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he’s a danger to others and cannot control his criminal tendencies. In any other civil trial, the state only has to prove its case by preponderance of evidence.

But Bowers gets to introduce Albrecht’s full criminal record during the trial - something prosecutors usually can’t do.

After the victims tell their stories, the jury’s focus will turn to a battle of experts.

Bowers will introduce the numerous psychiatric evaluations Albrecht has had while on parole or in prison. Those all conclude that he refuses to acknowledge how serious his problems are, Bowers said.

Moreno hopes to paint a more sympathetic picture. She’ll have experts testify about the emotional impact of Albrecht’s skin disease.

“Anyone with that condition will likely have a whole host of emotional problems,” Moreno said.

Other defense witnesses will describe the frequent troubles he has faced in finding a place to live. He was forced sometimes to move several times in a week.

Landlords would meet him, then decide he wasn’t welcome, Moreno said.

“The state identifies people as sex criminals and then releases them without any structured group home to help them return to society,” the defense attorney said.

“That may not be the key issue here, but I think it’s important.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo