2 sex offenders to get married in Special Commitment Center, a first

TACOMA -- Two sex offenders at Washington state's Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island are to get married there Thursday, becoming the first two residents to marry each other, The News Tribune of Tacoma reported Monday.

Hank Pollock, 47, and his transgender bride, Rebecca Elmore, 57, plan to step into a Wiccan circle to exchange vows and rings before being sent back to their respective units, the newspaper said, adding that it will be the first time they are allowed to kiss or hold hands.

"Just because you're in there, you don't lose your civil rights," Chris Case, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Health Services, which operates the Special Commitment Center, told the News Tribune. "Washington law says they can get married so they can get married."

The newspaper said the ceremony will cost the state nothing and there will be no honeymoon. Physical contact will be prohibited.

Keith Elmore, now Rebecca, pleaded guilty in 1995 in Clark County to second-degree kidnapping and second-degree assault with sexual motivation. Pollock was convicted of five counts of sex crimes against children in Kitsap and Thurston counties from 1987 to 1993.

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