Trial for Civil Commitment of Convicted Rapist Begins

More than a year after Mark T. Robinson completed his 12-year prison sentence for the rape of a Winlock woman, he is still in custody and may be held indefinitely if the state convinces a jury that he is a sexual sadist.

Robinson is one of a few hundred offenders in Washington who the state attempts to keep incarcerated indefinitely under the Washington Sexually Violent Predator Law.

This week in Lewis County Superior Court, Malcolm Ross, from the state Attorney General’s Office, will attempt to convince a jury that Robinson is a sexual sadist, and that if he is released, he will likely re-offend.

Robinson pleaded guilty to first-degree rape and second-degree kidnapping in Lewis County Superior Court on Sep. 27, 2000. He was sentenced to about 12 years in prison. 

At the end of his sentence, on May 10, 2012 — three days before Robinson was going to be released from prison — the Attorney General’s Office filed a petition in Lewis County Superior Court ordering he be transported to McNeil Island, pending a civil trial in which a jury would decide whether he fit the definition of a sexually violent predator.

If the jury agrees, Robinson will be committed to McNeil Island, where he will be indefinitely incarcerated with about 300 other sex offenders, who the court also ruled to be sexually violent predators. 

Washington became the first state to pass a law that authorized indefinite civil commitment for those types of crimes in 1990.

The offenders at McNeil Island are housed at a Special Commitment Center until authorities decide that their conditions have changed so they no longer meet the definition of a sexual violent predator, or if they find a less restrictive alternative that adequately protects the community.

Robinson’s trial is expected to last about a week and a half. Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler is presiding. Because the case is civil, not criminal, Robinson does not have the right to remain silent, and will testify before the jury.

Robinson, now 46, was 33 years old when he kidnapped and raped an 18-year-old Winlock woman who was hitchhiking from Spokane to Lewis County, according to court documents.

A few hours into the drive, Robinson, who was working as a truck driver, tricked the woman into going into the sleeping compartment of the truck cab, according to court documents. He then took out a knife and threatened to kill her if she did not do what he wanted.

The victim told police that Robinson said she was going to “pay for her ride” whether she liked it or not, and that she should do what he wanted if she “ever wanted to see her daughter again,” according to court documents.

After the rape, the woman told police he continued driving toward Winlock, according to court documents. At one point during the drive, Robinson pulled off the road, stopped, and he grabbed her by the neck and pulled her out of the car and to the edge of the cliff. He then made her swear on the lives of her family that she would not report the rape if he let her go.

After Robinson was arrested for the rape of the Winlock woman, he confessed to raping about a dozen prostitutes, many at knifepoint, in Pierce and King counties in the late ‘90s.

Robinson told detectives he admitted to the rapes because he wanted “some help to get over it,” according to court documents. He also said he had a problem and that “things got out of control.”

Robinson has only one other prior conviction of patronizing a prostitute and unlawfully carrying a weapon from 1998 after he attempted to hire an undercover officer posing as a prostitute.