McNeil Island counselor investigated

ROB TUCKER; The News Tribune
Nora Cutshaw had a job for nearly three years watching some of the state’s most violent sex predators during community visits in the Puget Sound area.
She recently resigned as a residential rehabilitation counselor for the state’s Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island.

Now state officials say they would have fired her if she hadn’t resigned first.

They say Cutshaw, 38, didn’t follow established driving routes while supervising a child rapist, brought a revealing photo of herself into a secure male sex offender facility, and violated other policies.

Henry Richards, SCC superintendent, described Cutshaw’s actions in a notification letter he wrote to her a few days after she resigned.

“They were not only completely contrary to your obligation to maintain a therapeutic environment,” Richards wrote, “but also placed yourself and the community at risk.”

Hundreds of pages of investigative records obtained by The News Tribune reveal details from the Cutshaw case and show the potential for rehab staff to cross professional boundaries.

They also shed light on the little-known role McNeil Island’s 25 unarmed counselors play in protecting the public from sex offenders who are preparing to return to society. Five offenders are currently in the escort program.

Cutshaw sometimes took sex offender Casper Ross on his approved visits off the island to see family and to work at concrete and masonry job sites, among other places.

Ross was convicted in 1987 of raping a 12-year-old girl while armed with a knife. He was sent to the Special Commitment Center in 1998. He was in a transitional facility early this year, making plans for release, and was considered by some a low risk to reoffend.

But suspicions were raised April 1 when Cutshaw took Ross to visit his relatives in Lakewood. A city police officer reported that things appeared amiss between Cutshaw and Ross during a routine check of the house.

Lakewood Police Chief Larry Saunders later said there was an “appearance of sexual activity” involving “a very dangerous person.” The state investigation was launched.

Spokesman Steve Williams of the Department of Social and Health Services called this the first serious incident involving escort staff and a resident sex offender from the transition facility, which opened in 2001.

Cutshaw was placed on paid administrative leave and resigned Oct. 22.

Cutshaw’s attorney, Douglas Wyckoff of Olympia, said the accusations of sexual impropriety are unfounded. And in fact, the state investigation didn’t substantiate them.

“It’s been real traumatic for her,” Wyckoff said last week.


ESCORTING SEX OFFENDERS


The Special Commitment Center holds 268 of the state’s most dangerous sex offenders.

Williams said no felony crimes have occurred at the center since it opened 17 years ago; problems have been limited to minor infractions, personality conflicts and small skirmishes. And none of the handful of sex offenders who are allowed to visit the community have reoffended, he said.

There are 25 residential rehabilitation counselors who work at the center to cover all shifts, 24 hours a day. They are trained in escorting resident sex offenders, in their behavior patterns, in self-defense, hostage survival, crisis intervention, record keeping and other job requirements.

All receive FBI background checks. All are unarmed. They can earn up to $40,692 a year.

Some of them help escort sex offenders who have progressed enough to earn permission go off the island daily to jobs, to visit relatives, for treatment or for other reasons.

The trips are spread throughout the region, including Pierce, King, Snohomish, Mason, Thurston, Kitsap and Lewis counties.

Ross was in this transition program and was authorized to visit relatives in Lakewood on April 1.

Cutshaw, his escort that day, didn’t immediately answer the door when a city police officer knocked repeatedly that afternoon. The officer said she and Ross appeared disheveled when he entered the house.

Cutshaw said later that her hair was mussed because she habitually plays with it and that she was fixing her shirt because she was sitting on the couch watching TV while Ross was repairing his cousin’s computer in another room. She said Ross came out of the bathroom after the officer entered the home.

Based on the police report, Chief Saunders asked state authorities to investigate possible violations of state protocol for overseeing sex offenders on community visits.

Cutshaw’s attorney says the accusations were never substantiated, and he points out that she wasn’t charged with anything.

Lakewood police say they stand by the officer’s report.


BREAKING PROTOCOL


Investigators never determined exactly what happened during the Lakewood visit last spring.

What they did find, said Williams of the DSHS, would have been enough to justify Cutshaw’s dismissal.

• Records show that Cutshaw deviated 22 times from planned routes while driving Ross on 10 of his approved community visits in March and April.

Authorities said she didn’t get official approval to make trip changes. They used global positioning technology based on Ross’s ankle bracelet to determine that he made unapproved visits to Federal Way shopping areas, a park, gas stations and fast-food restaurants.

Cutshaw’s union representative told authorities at an October meeting that Cutshaw believed other counselors also deviated from approved trip plans when escorting Ross. Williams said investigators didn’t find evidence of that.

Cutshaw didn’t attend the pre-disciplinary meeting.

• Officials found that Cutshaw brought a color photo of herself wearing a two-piece bathing suit or lingerie into the secure transition facility, records show. Staff members found the photo hidden in Ross’ room.

Cutshaw said later that she didn’t know how Ross got the photo.

“I was shocked,” she said in a deposition. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Cutshaw said she had brought a photo album of wedding cakes to work to show a fellow employee who was planning a wedding. She said the personal photo of her must have been stuck in the back of the album.

Ross told a corrections officer that he took it without Cutshaw’s knowledge after an unnamed staff member let him look at the photo album.

• Authorities said Cutshaw lied on her 2004 state employment application when she stated she had a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Western Carolina University. Officials learned that she had attended the university but had no degree.

Cutshaw said she had to drop out of an online program due to the press of work.

Wyckoff, her attorney, said Cutshaw suffers from a disability and couldn’t comment on the investigation at this time. He wouldn’t say if the disability is related to the investigation.

Richards, the commitment center superintendent, said Cutshaw had received instruction in the center’s policies, in maintaining proper boundaries in escorting sex offender residents, and in understanding the risks of overseeing violent sex offenders. He said she “displayed a severe lack of judgment.”

Williams said authorities will use the Cutshaw-Ross findings as a negative example when training counselors to maintain proper boundaries.


THE POLYGRAPH TEST


Meanwhile, Ross has been restricted to McNeil Island, pending a Jan. 17 court hearing.

Ross, now 44, was convicted in Pierce County two decades ago and spent 11 years in prison. He then was ordered to undergo treatment at the Special Commitment Center, where he admitted “having a total of six victims of rape behavior,” records show.

Ross had been in the less-restrictive transitional facility on McNeil Island for four years and had submitted plans to move to Tacoma. He held a steady job for six months.

Cutshaw said in a deposition that Ross never acted inappropriately when she was with him. She said she escorted him more than 10 but fewer than 100 times.

A state community corrections officer said Ross underwent a polygraph test about the April 1 Lakewood visit and gave deceptive responses when asked if he and Cutshaw had sexual contact.

But Ross maintained that he “did not touch that woman,” said the officer, Tela Wilson.

Ross’ attorney, Ann Stenberg, said polygraph technology is suspect, so the findings aren’t definitive.

As for the trip deviations, Stenberg said Ross isn’t responsible for his escort’s driving patterns. But, the attorney said, trip changes to go to the bathroom, have lunch or get gas for the car shouldn’t require reporting.

As for the revealing photograph, Stenberg said such issues are normally dealt with in therapy and aren’t a valid reason to take Ross out of the transitional facility.

But Wilson, the community corrections officer, reported to Pierce County Superior Court that Ross failed to comply with his treatment plan and rules because he had an unapproved photo of Cutshaw found hidden in his room behind a framed photograph of his daughter.

Ross also failed to disclose that he had a second photo of Cutshaw standing outside an amusement park.

Stenberg said the state’s investigation originally focused on the Lakewood visit, but because nothing improper occurred there, officials looked elsewhere and ultimately changed the theory of the case.

“It’s a very shaky state theory,” she said.

Rob Tucker: 253-597-8374

rob.tucker@thenewstribune.com


A residential rehabilitation counselor escort:

• Should have a high school diploma or general education degree.

• Should have two years of experience in caring for mental patients, or equivalent experience and education.

• Helps carry out planned programs for sex offender residents.

• Performs searches and inspections of residents and visitors.

• Assists residents and visitors in understanding regulations.

• Assists in controlling, directing and monitoring residents.