A former sex offender who was previously held in custody at a secure island prison for sexually violent predators in Washington was recently indicted for the “receipt and possession of images of child sexual abuse” after Democrat policies reportedly enabled his release.
In a Wednesday press release, U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman announced that 71-year-old Alan Lewis Meirhofer had been indicted this week by a federal grand jury after he was initially charged in state court following a teenage boy discovering images of child sexual abuse on a phone he borrowed from Meirhofer. The press release noted that after finding the photos, the teenage boy gave the phone to his mother, who notified law enforcement officials. Meirhofer was arrested in March of 2021.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Merihofer’s case, the 71-year-old allegedly “befriended teen boys in the Skagit County area by inviting them to hang out at his residence, where he provided them gifts such as food, clothing, alcohol, cash, and marijuana.” Wednesday’s press release noted that when one of the boys borrowed Meirhofer’s phone, he discovered that images of his friends had been distributed to a group chat.
After the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) requested any “cyber tips associated with internet accounts linked to Meirhofer” from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, officials found more than a dozen reports of child sexual abuse images linked to Meirhofer. According to the press release, the 71-year-old was taken into federal custody on July 17, 2024.
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Wednesday’s press release noted that Meirhofer will face increased penalties if he is convicted due to previous convictions.
“In 1988 Meirhofer was convicted of burglary, kidnapping and rape. In 1990, Meirhofer was convicted of Burglary in the First Degree While Armed with a Deadly Weapon and Assault in the Second Degree. Meirhofer was civilly committed to the sexually violent predator Civil Commitment Center on McNeil Island,” the press release stated. “He was released in 2017 as a registered sex offender level 3, the level with the highest risk of reoffending.”
Despite his release from the Civil Commitment Center on McNeil Island in 2017, court documents reveal that Meirhofer was diagnosed with “pedophilia, paraphilia not otherwise specified nonconsent, and personality disorder.”
The Post Millennial reported that Washington Democrats passed legislation in 2021 to make it easier to release and distribute sexual offenders equally across counties throughout the state.
Meirhofer faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 20 years in prison if he is convicted, according to Wednesday’s press release.
