Rapist Held by INS Is Freed After 16 Months

Soviet immigrant Alexander Okner, jailed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service for 16 months because the agency believed he posed a threat to society, has been released on bond in Los Angeles.

Okner, who served eight years in California state prison for the kidnaping and repeated rape of a Santa Monica woman, had been imprisoned at the federal detention center at Terminal Island since October, 1992. Although he has been ordered deported from the United States, no country will take him.

“I have no idea why they let me out,” Okner said of his release last week. “I honestly do not know.”

The INS could not be reached for comment Monday. Earlier, however, representatives of the INS district office in Los Angeles said they had no intention of releasing Okner for any reason except deportation because they felt he was a threat to society.

Okner, 39, was featured in a Los Angeles Times article earlier this month about the indefinite detention of illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes in this country and cannot be deported.

Okner was allowed into the United States from the Soviet Union with his parents and grandmothers 17 years ago. But unlike his relatives, he did not complete his legal immigration process and had been ordered excluded under U.S. law.

Russia, however, has refused to take him, as has Ukraine, where he was born. Israel, which Okner petitioned because of his Jewish heritage, also declined.

Okner said he was released from Terminal Island after his parents--both naturalized U.S. citizens--posted a $5,000 bond. They and others, including a psychiatrist who was treating Okner at the Terminal Island facility, had argued that he had been rehabilitated and was no longer dangerous.

“I have no driver’s license, no money, no job, but I am happy to be out,” Okner said. “Whatever happened was a long time ago and it is not going to happen again.”

Okner, described by his probation officer as a career criminal, has convictions for assault and battery, assault with a deadly weapon, extortion, kidnaping and rape, and he has admitted using drugs. “People grow up and change,” Okner said.