A former inmate of McNeil Island, a secure prison island in Washington for sex offenders, has been indicted for receipt and possession of child sexual abuse images.
This comes in the wake of a law passed by Democrats that has eased the process for offenders to be released from the facility, which is designed to house violent sexual offenders.
Alan Lewis Meirhofer, 71, was indicted this week by a federal grand jury for receipt and possession of child sexual abuse images, as reported by The Post Millennial. US Attorney Tessa M. Gorman stated that Meirhofer was initially charged in state court after a teenage boy discovered images of child sexual abuse on a phone he had borrowed from Meirhofer. The boy handed the phone to his mother, who subsequently contacted law enforcement. Meirhofer was arrested in March 2021, and his devices were confiscated.
The criminal complaint, obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, alleges that Meirhofer befriended teenage boys in Skagit County, Washington, and invited them to his home. He allegedly provided them with "gifts" such as clothing, cash, alcohol, food, and marijuana. One of the boys, after borrowing Meirhofer's phone, noticed that Meirhofer had sent images of his friends to a group chat and discovered depictions of child sexual abuse on the device.
The FBI sought assistance from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to identify any cyber tips related to internet accounts linked to Meirhofer. The agency received over a dozen reports of child sexual abuse images linked to accounts controlled by Meirhofer. He was taken into federal custody on July 17, 2024.
US Attorney Gorman noted that due to his previous convictions, Meirhofer could face increased penalties if convicted. His criminal history includes convictions for burglary, kidnapping, and rape in 1988, and convictions for Burglary in the First Degree While Armed with a Deadly Weapon and Assault in the Second Degree in 1990.
Despite being a level three registered sex offender, classified as the highest risk of reoffending, Meirhofer was released from the sexually violent predator Civil Commitment Center on McNeil Island in 2017. Court documents from 2000 diagnosed him with "pedophilia, paraphilia not otherwise specified nonconsent, and personality disorder." State experts estimated his risk of reoffending to be between 49 percent and 92 percent. If convicted, Meirhofer faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, with a maximum of 20 years.
In 2021, Washington Democrats passed legislation amending state law to facilitate the distribution of conditionally released sexually violent predators, referred to as "residents," across the state's counties. The legislation, which Democratic lawmakers dubbed "fair share principles," mandates each county in Washington to provide community-based housing for conditionally released sexually violent predators from their respective counties.
Progressive politicians in the state, including Democrat Governor Jay Inslee and Democrat Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who is vying to replace Inslee, have collaborated with the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) and the Department of Corrections (DOC) to implement this legislation. Their strategy involves depopulating McNeil Island and releasing offenders, who are likely to re-offend, into various locations.
In 2023, Governor Inslee vetoed sections of a bill that would have mandated tribes and communities to receive prior notification if a sexually violent predator was to be relocated to their neighborhoods.
As a result, level 3 offenders are now being placed in unsuspecting neighborhoods without warning, often in facilities with minimal security and supervision. This raises serious concerns about public safety and the potential for reoffending, particularly given the high-risk profiles of these offenders.
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