Is Yakima man a sexually violent predator?

YAKIMA, Wash. -- By the time he was 18, authorities said Steven Ritter had molested two girls and a developmentally disabled woman. He is 30 now and still in custody. Authorities want to keep it that way.

On Wednesday, Ritter went on trial in a Yakima County courtroom, where a jury will decide whether he should be "civilly committed" under mental health laws as a sexually violent predator.

If the jury agrees, Ritter will be confined indefinitely to the state's Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. That's in addition to the five years he's already spent awaiting trial since his sentence for first-degree child molestation expired in 2007.

In opening statements, state Assistant Attorney General Joshua Choate told the jury of seven men and seven women that expert testimony would show Ritter is a pedophile with an anti-personality disorder.

"It's the combination of these things ... that makes it really difficult for him to refrain from acting on" his sexual attraction to children, Choate told the jury.

Choate said nobody disputes Ritter had a horrific early childhood in Oklahoma before he was put in foster care and eventually adopted by a Yakima family.

Regardless of how it happened, Ritter is a volatile person who has been a behavioral problem in and out of custody, and is a sexual danger to children, Choate said.

"He doesn't have the ability to check himself, consider the consequences and move in another direction," he said.

Bolstering the state's case, the jury heard testimony from two young women who said they were molested by Ritter as girls.

One woman told the jury she was 9 years old in 2000 when Ritter, then 18, approached her one day at the Yakima library branch on Summitview Avenue. The date was Jan. 18, 2000 -- 12 years ago.

Now 21, the woman began to tear up as she recounted her confusion when Ritter fondled her after offering to help her find an audio book. Ritter was convicted of first-degree child molestation in the case.

"I will never forget his red baseball cap," she said.

The other woman, now 23, testified she was 8 years old when Ritter attacked her one day at a Yakima church in February 1996.

She also cried as she recounted how Ritter dragged her out of a side room during choir practice and nearly raped her in the snow outside the building. Ritter was 15 at the time.

"He said, 'If you ever tell anyone, I'll kill you,' " she told the jury. Although police were called, for reasons that were not entirely clear in court, charges were never filed.

Ritter's attorney, Robert J. Thompson of Pasco, did not dispute those crimes or that his client has emotional problems. Ritter also molested a 46-year-old developmentally disabled woman during a family Christmas trip to Oklahoma in 1996.

But the attorney did take exception to the state's contention that Ritter is a dangerous pedophile, saying Ritter's last crime was "on the bubble" of adulthood at age 18.

"Steven has issues," Thompson said, "but he sure as heck isn't a pedophile."

Thompson said juvenile offenders like Ritter are different than adult offenders and that expert testimony will show that recidivism rates for sex offenders is much lower -- perhaps 5 percent -- than the public's perception.

"You're going to deal with a lot of emotional information in this case," he said, urging the jury to focus on "what the science is."

In 1990, Washington became the first state in the country to hold inmates who have been deemed "sexually violent predators" for treatment beyond their prison terms.

Predators are civilly committed under mental health laws after serving prison terms for their crimes. In the past two decades, more than 300 offenders have been committed to the center on McNeil Island.

* Chris Bristol can be reached at 509-577-7748 or cbristol@yakimaherald.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ChrisJBristol.