Attorney General Intervenes to Stop Sex Offender’s Release

If outgoing Attorney General Bob Ferguson has his way, a convicted sex offender will be committed to Puget Sound's McNeil Island.

Ferguson is petitioning to halt the release of 38-year-old Jake Unick. In 2014, Unick was found guilty of kidnapping and sexually motivated attempted kidnapping and sent to prison.

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His release is scheduled for Thursday. Ferguson contends that Unick is not only mentally imbalanced but actively dangerous.

(Since the 1990s, McNeil Island has housed offenders deemed unreleasable by the courts. It's a DSHS facility. Confinees are committed civilly, rather than criminally.)

But the allegations undergirding the petition are as yet unproven. Unick's probable cause hearing is scheduled for early this month. The hearing will determine whether he reenters society or sits on McNeil Island pending trial; the latter outcome isn't possible sans a unanimous jury verdict.

The Unick saga dates back to 2013, when, according to prosecutors, he violently accosted a teenage girl outside of a Ferndale restaurant and frogmarched marched her down a busy street. Weeks later he is said to have pepper sprayed two female victims in separate attacks in Bellingham.

He also reportedly abducted a toddler-aged girl from a Fred Meyer store in Bakerview. Click here to read about the allegations in detail.

Washington was a pioneer of sorts, a pioneer in the post-release supervision of sex offenders. In 1990, it became the first state to commit select offenders involuntarily. As of this writing, there are fewer than 200 offenders in the Special Commitment Program.

Assistant Attorneys General Nathan Olson and Colette Sampson and paralegals Rebecca Hendrickson and Kelly Hadsell are handling the Unick case.