There was no point at which I was going to go the parole board and say, oh yeah, and let me out. In fact, all these years later, Coe still claimed to have an alibi for each attack, an alibi his socialite mother testified to, under oath, 25 years before. Coe: Oh, yeah. I was with my parents, both, or just my mother or just my dad.
At the time of every single one of those. And for the woman who provided him with an alibi, Coe even today comes to his mother's defense. Charging that her conviction for putting out a hit on those who sent him to prison, prosecutor Donald Brockett and Judge George Shields, was a travesty. Coe: Did she hate Brockett? Oh, yeah. To the day she died, did she hate Shields?
Oh yes. To the day she died, they were evil people in her mind. And she was right, but I'm saying to you she never went out looking for a hit man she fell into their trap! Sara James: Why would an innocent woman do this!? Say she wants to turn the prosecutor into a vegetable?
Why do that if you don't want to kill him? Coe: Well, there's a big difference between saying it and actually doing it. But now, as we were sitting down with him, Kevin Coe -- one of the most infamous criminals in Washington State history -- was due to be released, free and clear, in just 90 days.
It was a fact he claimed hardly to have considered. Sara James: You haven't allowed yourself to think about the first time you go out to have dinner, or the first time Coe: Have dinner where? Who's gonna pay for it? I have no money no car, no wardrobe, no job skills. A convicted felon, forget about it. What can you do? Your life is over. You couldn't start over at 19 with all those things going against you, let alone It's preposterous!
He might be asking for pity, but as Coe's release date approached, that wasn't the feeling in Spokane, where a nervous twitch that hadn't been felt in decades began creeping in once again. Coe had served his time. Paid his debt. But that twitch, 28 years after her rape, Shelly Monahan still felt it. Shelley: No I don't think he should get out. I don't think he should ever get out.
Even more worried was Julia Harmia, whose rape case was the only one Coe was still serving time for. Harmia: You try to do normal things so that it doesn't consume you. But certainly all of the terror comes right back to this day, I have visions of him climbing into the tree in my backyard and being able to look through the window at me.
And the police could never keep me safe. That's a vantage point. He could climb that tree and he could watch everything that goes on in my house. And to this day I have that mental image. In fact, Julie Harmia was so terrorized, that 26 years after her rape, she'd still never even told her own children about the attack, about the panic she still felt and why she was recently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Harmia: Yes, it was not something I wanted to discuss. It was something I wanted to bury and forget. And just get on with my life and try to create a sense of security for myself again.
Sara James: And yet after all those years not even telling your children, you've now decided to go on national television.
Harmia: Number one, the world has to understand what this man did. And number two, there is some hope that this will help me heal. Because I haven't healed after 25 years. And one of the detectives who helped put Kevin Coe in prison, is worried for another reason. McGougan: His mother was good at revenge. I'm not sure what he might do when he gets out. Coe: Coming back to Spokane? They should be scared. What they should be scared of is that the wrong man was convicted.
Coe: Believe me, the moment that it's legal for me to leave this state, if that moment ever arrives, I will never set foot in this state ever again.
So I wouldn't be known by any such moniker. Coe: Of course not. I've never committed a crime of any kind in my life. I was a model citizen. I'm not a criminal. I don't commit crimes. I'm not a threat to anybody and never have been.
But as Coe's release date neared, behind-the-scenes there was an unusual effort that could keep Kevin Coe behind bars. Washington State Penitentiary, June In less than three months, South Hill rapist Kevin Coe would be a free man. Suspected of dozens of rapes and originally convicted of six, successful appeals had whittled the cases down to just one. His year sentence was about to end. Kevin Coe: Absolutely not.
But across the state of Washington, women like Julie Harmia, who'd identified Coe as her rapist, nervously consulted the calendar. Harmia: If I knew that he was out on the street I would really be uncomfortable.
Extremely uncomfortable. And in Spokane, local news anchor Shelly Monahan, who believes Coe raped her, was equally anxious -- one of thousands who remembered those days, now long ago, when the quiet town by the river was on edge. Monahan: People are walking up to me, wherever I happen to be and just want to talk about it. This has opened up wounds that are so deep in this community. But as Coe's release date approached, there were extraordinary steps being taken to keep him behind bars.
Back in , Washington's legislators passed The Community Protection Act, which created a way for the state to keep the most dangerous sexually violent predators segregated from society even after their criminal sentences ended. Rob McKenna: These folks represent a little over one percent of the sex offender population of Washington State.
These are the worst of the worst. McKenna: Horrible, horrible cases of children being mutilated, of people being raped and murdered. There were cases like that of Earl Shriner, imprisoned for raping two teenaged girls.
Shriner warned authorities he'd do it again -- then kept his word when released, raping and mutilating a young boy. Or Gene Raymond Kane, who after serving 13 years for two attacks, raped and murdered a woman just months after his release. Since the controversial new law was passed, providing for civil trials to be held to determine if criminals who'd served their sentence should remain locked up, Washington's courts have committed more than criminals here to McNeil Island in the waters of Puget Sound, a sort of "psychiatric hospital meets Alcatraz.
Here, the offenders receive treatment for mental disorders linked to sexual deviancy. As Kevin Coe's release day loomed, the question became: Did the attorney general believe Coe had the "mental defect" as the law required to commit him to the island? Kevin Coe: My mental health is perfect. There's nothing wrong with me at all. I'm an innocent man. Coe bristled at the notion that he could even be considered a candidate for the special commitment center. After three years working in Chicago, Monahan moved back to Spokane for a chair at the early morning desk at KHQ, which had the top show in that time slot and still does.
The station is owned by Cowles Co. One of the things Monahan said she liked best about the morning time slot was the chance to go out and meet people after the show was over or connect with them through social media. Her KHQ Facebook page has about 15, friends.
Monahan and Simon Craven Thompson, founder of the coffee roasting company, made the monthly deliveries. We were both born and raised in Spokane and know the area very, very well. Steve and I have been blessed with four children, Marshall 31, Mitchell 29, Makenzie 27, and Taylor 25!! Patiently waiting for grandchildren! We have our animals too. Two retired Thoroughbred gelding race horses.
We love being able to give them a place to live, knowing they're safe after coming off the race track. Many behaviors Coe exhibited in the rape of J. The state began its case with the oldest incident first, calling a woman who was 16 in May when, she said, she met Coe at a dance and asked him for a ride home.
He parked his car in a wooded area, got on top of her and forcefully pinned her to the seat while he shook violently, she said. He later dropped her off downtown, and she wrote down his license plate. Three male friends chased him out of the apartment building, and he was apprehended, said the woman, who was 20 at the time of the incident.
Coe, dressed in a cap and sporting a long beard in the videotape, looked dramatically different from his courtroom attire this week — short hair, blue blazer and dress shirt.
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