Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 05/24/06

Contact person(s):

Media Coordinator, Donna Edwards - 565-3099 Media Spokesperson, Assistant District Attorney Larry Scoufos

Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California

JURY FINDS DEFENDANT TO BE A SEXUALLY VIOLENT PREDATOR

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua announced today that a Sonoma County jury has determined that Iran Allen Roger Poe is a sexually violent predator. The Superior Court jury received evidence over the course of a two weeks that Mr. Poe suffers from a diagnosed mental condition that makes him likely to commit sexually violent crimes if released back into the community.

Mr. Poe is 47 years old and currently is being treated at the California’s newest high security medical facility in Coalinga. When he was 15 years old, he and his brother, David Poe, kidnaped and raped a 38 year-old woman. He was sent to the the Sonoma County Probation Camp and eventually to the California Youth Authority (CYA). At 17 years of age, Poe, his brother and two uncles kidnaped and raped a 17 year-old girl. He was again sent to CYA, spending his last three and one half years at Atascadero State Hospital in the sexual offender program. In 1985, Mr. Poe kidnaped a 37 year-old woman and forced her at knife-point to orally copulate him. He was sentenced to prison and remained there until 1994.

After his release from prison, Poe repeatedly violated parole and was returned to prison each time. In 1996, he was sentenced to 16 months state prison for failing to comply with the mandatory sex offender registration statute. That year, the sexually violent predator statute was enacted. It allows for those persons with records such as Mr. Poe’s to be held in secure facilities until such time as they no longer pose a serious and well founded risk of committing further crimes of sexual violence if released. Poe was first determined to meet the criteria of this law in 1998. Under current law, Mr. Poe will have a right in two years to have another jury decide if he continues to be a sexually violent predator.

District Attorney Passalacqua stated, "This individual has repeatedly demonstrated that he is a danger to our community."