SEATTLE — A registered sex offender repeatedly convicted of sexually assaulting children is back in jail, after being arrested by Seattle police in the Chinatown-International District on Thursday.

Officers arrested Richard Eugene Jackson, a 57-year-old sex offender who’s spent time in state prison and the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. Jackson’s criminal history spans decades, and he’s now accused of possessing and distributing child sex abuse material months after being released from prior custody.

The Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) Internet Crimes Against Children Unit has been investigating Jackson since last summer, according to SPD. Detectives said they received 18 cyber-tips over a short period of time, accusing Jackson of having and sharing images of children engaging in sexual conduct.

SPD has collected evidence from Jackson’s car and apartment on King Street. Detectives have not uncovered new evidence of Jackson physically abusing children, SPD said.

Jackson waived his first appearance in King County jail Court on Friday afternoon, where a judge found probable cause to hold him. Judge Matthew York set Jackson’s bail at $750,000 and ordered the defendant to have no contact with minors or access to internet devices. King County prosecutors argued Jackson’s extensive, violent background makes him an ongoing threat to society.

“His record demonstrates he is not capable or unwilling to conform to the law, and the state does believe that if released, he will not follow the conditions of release,” the state argued in court.

Jackson has eight prior sex offense convictions, according to the state. These offenses include the sexual assaults of a 12-year-old boy and a 7-year-old boy, similar child sex abuse material charges, and attempts to connect with elementary-aged boys for sexual contact, according to the sex offender registry.

In a previous case, Jackson admitted to sexually abusing around 70 children, young boys and girls. Court records state Jackson was sent to the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island in 2003, a facility run by the Department of Social and Human Services to house sexually violent predators likely to reoffend if they’re not securely detained.

In 2019, Jackson was conditionally released from McNeil Island to the Secure Community Transition Facility in King County. Over the next few years, Jackson was released into less restrictive custody and then recommitted after alleged violations, according to court documents.

Then, in March of 2025, the state’s sexually violent predator (SVP) petition against Jackson was dismissed, following an SVP evaluation report of Jackson by the State’s expert, Harry Goldberg, Ph.D. Court records show Jackson was then granted unconditional release from community custody in March, which would be just months before Seattle police began investigating Jackson for these new allegations.

Jackson will remain in the King County Jail. He’s expected back in court on Feb 2.

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SEATTLE (AP) — A jury on Thursday ordered the city of Seattle to pay more than $30 million over the unsolved, fatal shooting of a teenager at the “ Capitol Hill Occupied Protest ” zone, which arose in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.

The King County jury returned the verdict following 12 days of deliberation, finding that the city was negligent in its emergency response to the shooting of Antonio Mays Jr., 16, and that that negligence caused his death, The Seattle Times reported.

Because first responders wouldn’t come to the protest zone, witnesses tried to bring Mays by private vehicle to get medical care from paramedics. They tried to flag down an ambulance that drove away from them, and it was about 24 minutes before they met with medics in a parking lot.

Attorneys for the family argued that Mays might have survived if his airway was properly cleared sooner. The city argued that Mays, who was shot in the head, was unlikely to have lived and that the emergency response was not to blame for his death.

Seattle was ordered to pay $4 million to Mays’ estate and $26 million to his father, Antonio Mays Sr., who became emotional and hugged his lawyer as the verdict was announced.

Racial justice demonstrators enraged about Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police took over eight square blocks in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood in June 2020, creating a protest zone called “CHOP.” It lasted three weeks after the city police department abandoned its nearby precinct, earning derision from President Donald Trump, who claimed a large section of the city had been taken over by anarchists.

Following two shootings at or near the protest, including Mays’ death on June 29, then-Mayor Jenny Durkan and the police department dismantled the zone.

Mays was shot in a stolen white Jeep near the protest zone with a 14-year-old also in the vehicle. A livestream from the scene captured the shots and the aftermath — but did not show the shooter. Witnesses said on the livestream that armed protesters guarding the protest zone’s barricades had fired at the Jeep. No arrests have been made nor charges filed.

Mays traveled to Seattle from southern California, where he left a note for his father saying he was joining the civil rights movement. He did not tell his father where he was going, only that he wanted to make him “proud.” Mays Sr. filed a missing persons report with the Los Angeles Police Department the same day he found the note.

Less than 10 days later, Mays was dead. The 14-year-old, who was also shot, survived after witnesses brought him to a hospital.

King County Superior Court Judge Sean O’Donnell barred the city from presenting a defense that it was not liable because Mays was committing a felony — stealing the Jeep — at the time he was killed. Even if the city proved Mays had stolen the Jeep, O’Donnell ruled, there’s no proof that he was killed because of it.

In a statement Thursday the city attorney’s office called the death a tragedy and said it was considering its legal options.