Serial molester arrested in Oregon | Seattle Times

[Ediacara]

Serial molester arrested in Oregon

By Jonathan Martin
Seattle Times staff reporter


Edward Stokes

A regional manhunt for a serial sex offender who apparently had been driving around the Pacific Northwest since his release from a California prison ended with his arrest this morning in Gresham, Ore.

Edward Harvey Stokes, 49, was quietly arrested about 9 a.m. at a laundromat in the Portland suburb after a woman recognized him and called police. Stokes was being held at the Multnomah County Detention Center without bail on an arrest warrant issued in Vancouver, Clark County.

The warrant is for felony perjury and misdemeanor fraud for allegedly filing a false address on a driver's license application.

Police today said they still don't know what Stokes has been doing since being released from a California prison on April 7, but they seized a rented van with a mattress in the back, suggesting he had been living in the truck. There was no indication Stokes has committed any sex crimes since his release from prison, police said.

More at the Seattle Times

[boblynn]

1. I'm happy but it's still Fox Filler "News"

[newyawker99]

5. Hi boblynn!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Bronco69]

2. I'll admit I'm not up to date on this particular story,

but why do you launch a manhunt for someone who has done their time in prison and is released? How does one file an address if one is living out of a van?

[theHandpuppet]

3. Read the whole article before...

... you ask such a question. This piece of human scum is damned lucky someone hasn't offed him by now. This is one of those cases where my opposition to the death penalty is severely strained.

[LiviaOlivia]

4. Stokes faces forgery allegations and has yet to register as sex offender

This is a Big story in the Pacific NW. This snip is from yesterday.



http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/metro_north_news/1082203552139280.xml?oregonian?nn

04/17/04

<snip>

He has used Ned Stokes and Ed Powell as aliases.

Authorities are concerned about Stokes' apparent return to Washington because it was in a Seattle coffeehouse in 1996 that he met a teenager who eventually disclosed that Stokes had sexually assaulted him in a California motel.

The boy committed suicide in Colorado in 2001, several months before Stokes went to trial. Stokes was convicted and given a life sentence under California's one-strike law for sex offenses.

Last fall, California's 4th District Court of Appeals ruled that Stokes should not have been convicted because he was unable to confront his accuser. Stokes was released from the Orange County Jail April 7. By his own admission, Stokes has molested more than 200 people.

Under Washington law, he has 30 days after arriving in the state to register as a sex offender because of previous convictions in Oregon and Washington.

<snip>

edit: This is a reply to post #2.

[progressivebydesign]

6. He admitted to molesting over 200 young people..

.. even his own sister says he belongs in prison forever. The judge screwed up big time on this.. he agreed with this scum's lawyer that because the victim committed suicide, this guy didn't have a chance to "confront his accuser".. perhaps that's why the poor boy killed himself, the prospect of seeing that monster again. If you look at his rap sheet, you wonder WHY these people keep getting out of prison!! Washington has a wierd law, if you commit a felony sex crime, treatment is totally optional.. and most do not take it. They just wait a bit longer to get out, and they recommit. Punishment rather than treatment does nothing.. nothing at all. These types of people cannot control their urges, and sitting around in jail for years does not change that.

[progressivebydesign]

7. He got out on a technicality for a brutal rape. N/T