VIDEO > KREM 2's Lee Stoll reports

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SPOKANE -- A judge has denied a change of venue for the upcoming Kevin Coe civil commitment trial.

The judge says a jury will be picked in Spokane. If jury selection should become difficult then the change of venue issue can be revisited.

Coe’s attorney asked the judge to grant a change of venue because of pre-trial publicity.

Stay tuned to KREM 2 News at 5 p.m. to hear Lee Stoll's full report on the judge's ruling.

Previous Coverage

Attorneys for convicted South Hill rapist Kevin Coe want his upcoming civil commitment trial moved out of Spokane County.

Late last week, they filed a motion asking the judge to grant a change of venue because of pre-trial publicity.

KREM 2

Included in the filing: nearly 900 pages of arguments and evidence, including t-v and newspaper stories.

Coe himself even asked the judge not to let his future be decided here in Spokane.

It's been 25-years since a Spokane jury convicted Coe of rape--sending him to prison for a quarter century.

The only thing standing between Coe and his freedom now, is efforts by the state attorney general's office to keep him locked up - possibly for the rest of his life.

The decision would be up to a jury, which Coe does not want selected from Spokane.

Stating in his request: "I ask this court to move my pending trial to another county or use other reasonable means to select jurors outside of Spokane county who are not reasonably likely to be tainted by the publicity surrounding either both my previous rape trials or the instant proceedings."

For the last year or so, Coe has been living at a sexual-offender treatment facility on McNeil Island in western Washington.

According to the motion, media coverage of Coe during that time has been significant.

With trial set to begin in September, Coe and his attorneys maintain: "it is not reasonable to expect the media, which has been so energetic for over a year and a half, to suddenly fall silent in the eight-to-ten weeks before trial. The opposite is more likely."

Coe's attorneys say Seattle could work.

Prosecutors from the Attorney General's office are based there, many witnesses have moved from Spokane over the years and experts from both sides are coming from out of state and Seattle is an easier hub to get in and out of.

And of course, Coe himself is being held on the west side.

Prosecutors disagree with the motion and believe a fair jury can be picked in Spokane.

And say the trial should be held here because the crimes were committed here.

The judge will hear arguments from both sides next week.