Complete story at http://www.heraldnet.com/Stories/00/8/14/12854457.cfm

Rapist fights for his freedom

Jury to decide if restrictions on Gaff can be eased

By SCOTT NORTH
Herald Writer

This is what Mitch Gaff did:

One night 16 years ago, he slipped into an Everett home and bound and gagged two sisters, one 14, the other 16. He spent the next 2 1/2 hours repeatedly raping, sodomizing and beating the pair.

The attack ended only when one of the girls was able to wriggle free and escape, naked, into the street. At the time, Gaff had been trying to strangle one of the girls with an electrical cord.

Here’s what Mitch Gaff has done:

For more than eight years Gaff, 42, has been locked up receiving treatment designed to help him control, but never exorcise, his urge to engage in sexual violence. He’s participated in dozens of classes and ongoing therapy sessions. For the past five years Gaff has been locked up at the state’s Special Commitment Center, a special prisonlike complex where sex offenders are indefinitely detained and receiving treatment. The center is tucked away inside the state’s prison on McNeil Island in south Puget Sound.

It’s now time to decide whether Gaff has done enough to regain some of his freedom.

Starting today, a Snohomish County jury is scheduled to begin a trial to determine whether Gaff is ready to be released into a less-restrictive setting where he will continue to receive ongoing treatment.

There’s more to the story – read the full article at http://www.heraldnet.com/Stories/00/8/14/12854457.cfm

This guy could be released in my backyard…..you better believe that my .357 will be ready if he decides that me and my daughter would make a good target.