Pierce County sex offender committed to McNeil Island prior to release
The Spotlight goes inside McNeil Island: Home to Washington's most violent sexual predators
McNeil Island, the most infamous six miles in Washington and home to the state's most violent sexual predators. This week on The Spotlight, we take you behind the barbed wire and closed doors to get a look at what is really happening on this isolated island facility.
TACOMA, Wash. - A 36-year-old Pierce County sex offender was officially committed to McNeil Island as a sexually violent predator (SVP), Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Wednesday.
Ferguson prosecuted the trial against John Brewer, a Pierce County man who molested a developmentally disabled seven-year-old girl while babysitting them in 2016. A Pierce County Superior Court judge ordered Brewer to be civilly committed to the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island.
Brewer pleaded guilty to felony second-degree child molestation and first- and second-degree attempted kidnapping in July 2017. While in prison, Brewer also admitted to sexually assaulting six other children before his arrest, one of whom was a two-year-old child.
"It’s a high bar to designate someone a sexually violent predator," said Ferguson. "It’s reserved for people who are likely to continue to commit sexually violent crimes, unless we intervene. My team works every day to ensure our communities are protected from sexually violent predators."
Ferguson filed an SVP petition in 2022, prior to Brewer's scheduled release.
The state's SVP laws require prosecutors to prove offenders have a mental condition making them likely to commit predatory sexual crimes. The judge found Brewer met that criteria.
Washington passed the first SVP laws in the U.S. in 1990, following three high-profile sexual assaults and murders.