A level two sex offender has moved to Greenbank and will be the subject of a community meeting this weekend, the Island County Sheriff’s Office has announced.
Richard J Dyer registered as a sex offender as required by law and reported his residence as a home on the 600 block of Pilchuck Drive. A sheriff’s office news release emphasized that Dyer is not wanted by police, but that the department agreed to host a community meeting at the request of several neighbors who had been alerted by police flyers. Upon learning the nature of the crimes, they asked the sheriff’s office to do more to alert the broader community, according to Detective Sgt. Laura Price.
“We agreed to do a meeting on a level two, which we don’t normally do — we do them for level threes — but the community asked for it so we’re going to do it,” Price said.
The meeting begins at 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12 at the Day Road Fire Station in Greenbank.
The purpose of the gathering is to answer questions. Price noted that level two sex offenders are considered to be of “moderate” risk to reoffend. She added that Dyer is 68, lives with his wife and has health issues that limit his mobility.
Price is expected to attend, along with a supervisor for the department of corrections and on-duty South Whidbey deputies.
Dyer was convicted in 1982 in Kitsap County of three counts of first degree rape, one count of first degree burglary and one count of unlawful imprisonment. Official documents say in January of 1980 he gave a 22-year-old woman a ride, but instead of taking her where she wanted to go he beat her, took her to his house, tied her up and sexually assaulted her over the course of several days. He required her to bathe, then washed her clothing before letting the woman go.
He did the same thing to an 18-year-old woman in August of the same year, the release said. The woman was walking her dog when she was forced into a car and taken to Dyer’s home where he tied her up and sexually assaulted her. He forced her to bathe and again washed her clothing before releasing her.
Two months later, in October, Dyer’s wife reported that she was held against her will and raped multiple times when she came to visit their 6-year-old son, the news release said. She’d been staying at a domestic violence shelter at the time.
According to official documents, in September 1981, Dyer’s ex-wife reported that she was sleeping in her bedroom and awoke to find him standing next to the bed. Dyer was not living at the residence and did not have permission to be there, the release said. She was restrained with duct tape and sexually assaulted.
“Afterwards he re-dressed the victim and put her in his vehicle where he drove for a period of time and stopped on a dirt road in a forested area,” the release said. “Dyer bound her ankles, left her in the vehicle, took a shovel and blanket and walked into the woods for a long period of time. When Dyer returned to the vehicle, the victim pleaded ‘don’t do this’ to which Dyer replied ‘done it before, and [he] could do it now.’
The woman was driven back to the residence and sexually assaulted again before being unbound and allowed to shower. He then paid her $80 for child support and left.
Dyer spent 34 years in prison, and completed a sex offender treatment plan in 2014.
