Posted on 04/16/2004 3:16:30 PM PDT by Checkers
A serial child molester freed in Orange County last week from a life sentence has resurfaced in Washington state, where authorities say he once cruised for victims — and where he will be required to register as a serious sex offender deemed likely to repeat his crimes.
Edward Harvey Stokes, who once said to a therapist that he had molested more than 200 victims and felt like a monster, applied for a new Washington driver's license using a Vancouver address three days after his April 7 release from the Orange County Jail, according to sheriff's officials in King County, Wash.
Cont. at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-stokes16apr16,1,6663090,print.story?coll=la-home-local
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Arrest warrant is issued for sex offender
By Christine Clarridge, Seattle Times staff reporter
Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Art Curtis said when he first read about the release of Edward Harvey Stokes last week from a California prison, his first thought was, "Thank God, he's not our problem."
A few hours later, he was. Police quickly learned that Stokes, a convicted sex offender, had signed up for a Washington driver's license using a Vancouver address.
But when Curtis and his deputy prosecutors learned Thursday that Stokes has never lived at that address, they spotted a way to put him behind bars. Stokes, 49, is now charged in Clark County with second-degree perjury, a felony, and for fraud in obtaining a driver's license, a misdemeanor. If convicted, he could face a maximum five-year sentence, Curtis said.
"We dropped everything to make sure this (arrest) warrant got into the system," Curtis said yesterday. "We wanted to make sure the community knew he had been seen in our area and we wanted the ability to take him off the streets if we found him."
But police had not located Stokes yesterday. Curtis said he had been sighted recently in Portland and in Clark County. Police in King County say Stokes joined Costco at its Tukwila store Tuesday. There are no allegations that Stokes has committed any new sex offenses since his release.
Police and prosecutors initially said there was little they could do to prevent Stokes from setting up house in Washington. He was released from prison without conditions of parole or probation. He had a 30-day grace period to register as a sex offender.
"We believe he has already committed a new felony" by giving a bad address on his license application, Curtis said. "Finding him is a high priority for us."
Stokes ? who once told a therapist he had assaulted more than 200 boys ? was released from an Orange County, Calif., prison April 7, after a California appeals court overturned his conviction for drugging and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old runaway he met in Seattle.
The court ruled Stokes, who was sentenced to 19 years to life, had been denied a constitutional right by not getting a chance to confront his accuser, who committed suicide several months before Stokes' trial.
The ruling came after a U.S. Supreme Court decision issued last month that overturned 25 years of precedent and ruled that criminals have a constitutional right to cross-examine all witnesses against them.
Stokes has several other sex-crime convictions in Washington and Oregon dating back to his teens.
In King County, where Stokes grew up, he was convicted of sodomy in 1976, unlawful imprisonment in 1980 and third-degree statutory rape in 1986, according to court documents.
In 1987, he was convicted in Whatcom County of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and delivering a controlled substance.
His record also includes two Oregon convictions: being a felon in possession of a weapon and giving liquor to a minor in 1991, and attempted sexual abuse the following year.
Before the furor over his release erupted, Stokes had told his lawyers that he had hoped to lead a normal life out of prison.
"I am being given another chance, and I do hope to use it to further my education and learn to blend into the community without further incidents," he wrote in a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
"The court has given me my life back, and I do plan on using it to the best of purposes this day and every day from this point on."
Law-enforcement officials in the Seattle area plan to keep an eye out for him. In the meantime, they welcomed the publicity the case has drawn.
"Sure, he deserves a chance," said King County sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart. "But because of who he is and what he's done, he is dangerous, he's classified as dangerous, and people should be aware that he's out there."
"Kent woman says her brother `will re-offend, and it will be violent'
2004-04-15
by Mary Swift
Journal Reporter
The release of child molester Edward Stokes has stunned his sister, an elementary school teacher who has worked for years to keep her brother behind bars.
Susan Stokes of Kent is sounding the alarm along with law enforcement officials that her brother will re-offend.
``He will re-offend -- and it will be violent,'' she said. ``He preys on street kids, kids who don't have anyone looking out for them or kids who are in trouble and afraid of going to the police.''
``It is appalling to me that a person with his criminal history has been released,'' Stokes wrote in an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times after the paper reported his release. ``He is dangerous.''
His adult life -- much of it spent behind bars -- has been a tapestry of sexual offenses, arrests and convictions.
``There is absolutely no doubt, given his history, that he'll re-offend,'' said Casey Johnson, a detective with the King County Sheriff Office's Special Assault Unit familiar with Stokes' record. ``He's at very high risk to re-offend.''
Given Stokes' extensive record of sexual offenses, it ``would have been nice'' to have him locked up for life, Johnson said. ``It's just not the way it works. There is no easy answer here.''
Adopted by Renton couple
At 48, Edward Stokes is a large, husky man who stands over 6 feet tall and weighs some 250 pounds.
Like Susan, two years his senior and unrelated by blood, he was adopted as an infant by Ned and Jeanne Stokes from a home for unwed mothers.
Early pictures show a blond, almost angelic looking toddler. By adolescence, though, the boy the family called ``Eddie'' would be anything but angelic.
The family, who owned Stokes Mortuary in downtown Renton, lived in a comfortable home in the Lakeridge area on Renton's West Hill. They moved to a new home in the Fairwood area, between Renton and Kent, when Eddie was 11.
Susan said she and Edward sang in a choir at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Renton. For a time, she said, he was also in Scouts.
Susan graduated from Kentridge High in 1972, Eddie in 1974.
As a teen, he developed an interest in the Civil Air Patrol.
Somewhere along the line, he also developed an interest in something far darker --sexual abuse.
``He was in jail most of the time after he left high school,'' Susan said. ``Holidays were awful. We would sit around waiting for his phone call (from prison or jail). The phone would ring. Dad would say, `It's Eddie' and pick it up. Then we would play `pass-the-phone.' And when it was over we would just sit there feeling depressed.''
Scared of his actions
Susan has a copy of a document her brother wrote in an application for a sexual offender treatment program while in prison.
``It has been 28 years since I first started sexually offending against neighbors, classmates and friends,'' Eddie wrote.
``I am scared of what my next action might be and how far I might go if my pattern continues.''
He claimed -- at that point -- that he had ``messed up'' more than 212 young victims. The number, he warned, would grow if he didn't get help.
``I have become more deviant, more dangerous, more abusive and more aware of the direction that this road is leading me,'' he wrote.
``He has been in treatment programs,'' Susan said this week. ``They didn't change him. They didn't make any difference.''
Eddie was released from prison in Oregon in 1995, the same year both of his parents died. In 1996, Eddie left Oregon and came to Washington.
Arrested a few days later on a parole violation, he posted a $25,000 cash bond, money Susan said came from his inheritance.
A spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's Office, quoted later in a TV interview, said the bail request would have been higher if the office had known about Stokes' past history.
Not surprisingly given his record, Eddie never showed up for his court date.
``He knew he was going back to prison,'' Susan said.
On the road to a new victim
On the run, he was also on the road to a new victim.
It was while he was in Seattle, only days after posting bail, that Eddie reportedly met Blue Karak, a homeless 16-year-old runaway.
Eddie promised Blue a trip to Disneyland. It was a promise that would become a nightmare.
In California, Blue said Eddie molested him, tying him with a chain. Blue eventually escaped and reported the incident to police.
Eddie fled -- and became the subject of a manhunt that included the FBI. Eventually arrested at a Nevada motel, he was returned to California to stand trial.
At the trial, witnesses would later testify that a chain in Eddie's possession matched the description of the chain Blue had described, that Blue's belongings were in Eddie's possession, and that a firearm was found in Eddie's car.
There also was testimony that Eddie had told others he would get Blue for reporting the molestation.
In November of 2001, Eddie was sentenced to ``19 years to life'' in prison, Susan said. Blue didn't live to see Eddie convicted. He committed suicide months before that trial began.
A sister's sigh of relief
But Susan Stokes, who flew to California several times to help with the case, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
``I finally believed he wasn't going to be able to hurt anyone else,'' she said.
``I finally thought he was going to be locked up for good.''
She found out last week she was wrong.
While calling to inquire about an aunt in a Florida hospital she heard that her brother was being released.
Shocked, she contacted Orange County officials who told her Eddie's conviction had been reversed on appeal.
It was shattering news to Susan -- and to others who believe Edward Stokes belongs behind bars. Eddie was free the night of April 7. Susan is devastated -- and scared.
Brother has `twisted' mind
``He has hurt so many people,'' she said. ``He's been committing predatory sex offenses since he was a teenager. The first time he got in trouble, my friend and I would go to see him.
``We thought it was a mistake, that he'd learned his lesson. But he didn't. The more I learned, the more convinced I became he is never going to change.
``The bottom line is, imbedded in all of this is someone so twisted few of us could imagine how his mind works.''
She is speaking out again, she said, because the public needs to know how dangerous her brother is and how difficult it is for law enforcement to protect the public from people like him.
``The general public doesn't realize that having to register as a predator doesn't stop predators. It just gives law enforcement people an address,'' she said. ``Yes, it helps track sexual predators but it doesn't keep them from re-offending.''
Susan said after she learned her brother had been released last week she was so upset she had trouble sleeping.
She sat down and wrote him a letter -- one she'll probably never send.
``I told him that Dad always believed him. Some of Dad's dying words, before he slipped into a coma, were `I think this time he's going to make it.' I don't think Eddie ever realized how much Dad and Mom loved him.''
A need to be locked up
She told Eddie something else, too. ``The bottom line is I think people like him can't change who they are and what they are. They need to be locked up. ``I told him if he's sincere about not wanting to hurt anybody any more, he'll ask to be locked up forever. ``
At least at one time in his life -- when he wrote the ``commitment to treatment'' paper -- Eddie himself appeared to agree.
``It's time to change or time to seek a life sentence inside the walls where I can't hurt children any more,'' he wrote in the application for the treatment program.
``But even then, there will continue to be victims.''
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