MADISON (WKOW) -- A registered sex offender who spent more than a decade in a locked mental health facility is now accused of a brutal sexual assault in Madison.
Authorities said Alfred Riley, 59, battered, strangled and sexually assaulted a woman Monday in a Baird Street apartment. A probable cause statement claims the victim, 40, was able to escape through a lower level of the unit.
"He was really going to kill me, he was going to kill me, I know this," the woman said during a Wednesday bail hearing for Riley. "If it wasn't for my neighbors overhearing me cry out for help, I probably would have been dead."
With no criminal charge lodged yet against Riley, Assistant State Public Defender Diana Van Rybroek asked that Hill be released on a signature bond. But Court Commissioner Jason Hanson said the matter was too serious and set bail at $100,000.
Dane County Court records show Riley sexually assaulted four women between 1986 and 1987. Records also state Riley sexually assaulted a woman in 1992 while on parole.
In 2001, court records show an assistant attorney general filed a civil case to have Riley declared a sexually violent person and be committed to a secure mental health facility. Records state Riley was deemed to meet that legal definition and by 2004 was a resident at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston.
Court records show Riley was denied release from the center in 2014. Records also show Riley was on supervised release from the facility in 2016. His release was revoked later that year.
On Valentine's Day 2018, Dane County Judge Richard Niess approved Riley's release from Sand Ridge. Neiss wrote the state "had not met its burden" to show Riley remained a sexually violent person.
State law allows someone convicted of certain sex crimes to be placed in a secure mental health setting after they've completed their criminal sentence if they meet criteria to be declared a sexually violent person. In Riley's case and other cases, a civil trial takes place to consider evidence and receive testimony.
Riley remained on the state's sex offender registry. He's had that classification for 36 years.
Hanson said Dane County's district attorney needs to produce criminal charges against Riley by Friday or Riley could be released.
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