Sexually violent predator nearly released to Spokane community linked to another local rape

September 15, 2021 6:57 PM

Emily Blume,

Posted: September 15, 2021 6:57 PM

Updated: September 15, 2021 7:11 PM

by Emily Blume

SPOKANE, Wash. — A sexually violent predator was days from freedom, but now could be seeing more years behind bars. The man was serving time at McNeil Island for raping children when a recently tested rape kit link him to another attack in Spokane.

Scott Halvorson, one of the many names this man goes by, is now the suspect in a rape that happened in Spokane in 2004 at Polly Judd Park. A rape kit that coincidentally was just screened came back as a match for Halvorson. He went before a judge on Wednesday.

Halvorson has a 40-year rap sheet, including child rape, and rape and assault. The state says he’s so sick he’s been confined at Washington’s McNeil Island, where the state’s most dangerous sex offenders go.

Halvorson was just days away from being released from McNeil Island and let back onto the streets of Spokane when his DNA was linked to yet another Spokane rape.

“Yeah. In fact, we had trouble locating him because he didn’t show in any prison rosters – the normal means of finding people. It’s this strange vacuum of where is this person,” Sergent Zachary Storment said.

They struggled because he was in custody- but a different kind of custody- and it’s a very small number of people who are in that situation.

Police say the rape kit matched Halvorson’s DNA, for a 2004 crime. An attack on a woman at Polly Judd Park in Spokane. She was choked to the unconscious and raped. Now, a lot of credit is being given to a patrol officer who worked hard on this case at the time and is now retired.

“She did a lot of follow up on this on her own, in the following days and weeks and stayed in contact with the victim. Ultimately some of the things she found are going to prove to be very important in this case,” Sergent Storment said.

Court documents show back in the 1980s, Halvorson had sexual contact with a four-year-old girl. While waiting to be sentenced for that crime, he broke into a 10-year-old girl’s bedroom while she was sleeping. He kidnapped her at knifepoint and raped her. In 2007 he attacked a woman inside her own Spokane County home.

“I hope that this is actually taken to trial, the prosector’s office, it’s now in their hands and it’s not really for me to say but I think most people can agree he’s a very dangerous person and ultimately I hope that’s the truth that comes out,” Sergent Storment said.

The big concern now is if he could still potentially be released. His bond was set to $250,000.

“If he can come up with that, it’d be interesting because he still has a commitment up at McNeil Island. So if he came up with that amount, I suppose he could be,” Sergent Storment said.

Halvorson will be back in court on Sept. 28 for an arraignment.