A 56-year-old Washington state woman allegedly drove her sedan onto a sidewalk and tried to run down a child on a dirt bike, then turned up at a stranger's home trying door handles, and a court commissioner released her the following day without requiring a dime in bail.
Wendy A. Clemente now faces charges of attempted first-degree assault, DUI, and first-degree criminal trespass after the Monday afternoon incident in Spokane County. But despite the severity of those charges, she walked out of jail on her own recognizance before the week was out.
The sequence of events, as described by the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, paints a picture of escalating recklessness, and a justice system that responded to it with a shrug.
Around 5:05 p.m. Monday, deputies received a report that a driver had veered onto a sidewalk on a residential street and tried to hit a boy riding a dirt bike. A witness captured video showing a silver sedan chasing the child down the sidewalk, Fox News reported. The boy was not injured.
Deputies quickly identified Clemente as the suspect and began searching for her.
They didn't have to look far. About an hour later, a homeowner roughly a mile from the first incident called to report a suspected burglary in progress. He had been monitoring his security cameras and spotted a woman trying door handles at his property.
When deputies arrived, they found Clemente in the homeowner's driveway. They took her into custody on the spot. During the encounter, authorities said she resisted arrest and tried to kick a deputy.
Clemente initially denied any wrongdoing. She told deputies she had stopped at the homeowner's property to find other dogs for her own dog to socialize with. She said she didn't know the homeowner and claimed she didn't remember the earlier incident involving the child.
Deputies noted signs of impairment. Clemente first denied drinking but later admitted to consuming alcohol. Authorities obtained a search warrant for a blood sample as part of the DUI investigation. The results of any toxicology testing have not been disclosed.
She was booked into the Spokane County Jail on charges of attempted first-degree assault, DUI, and first-degree criminal trespass. Just The News reported that she was released on her own recognizance the following day after a court commissioner's order, no bond required.
No injuries were reported in either incident. That is fortunate. But the absence of physical harm does not diminish the fact that a child was allegedly targeted with a two-ton vehicle on a sidewalk where he had every right to be.
The charges against Clemente are not minor. Attempted first-degree assault in Washington state is a serious felony. Pair that with a DUI arrest, an alleged attempted trespass, and resistance that included trying to kick a deputy, and the decision to release her on her own recognizance, without bail, raises an obvious question: What does a defendant have to do in Spokane County to be held?
The sheriff's office confirmed the release but did not name the court commissioner who ordered it. The specific terms or conditions of release, beyond own recognizance and no bond, remain unclear. No probable cause affidavit or detailed charging documents have been made public.
This kind of revolving-door justice is not unique to Spokane County. Across the country, communities are grappling with pretrial release policies that put accused violent offenders back on the street within hours. In Illinois, a Chicago Democrat recently demanded an overhaul of the state's no-cash bail law after a repeat offender on pretrial release allegedly killed a police officer. The pattern is the same: serious charges, quick release, and communities left wondering who the system is designed to protect.
The facts here speak plainly. A woman allegedly used her car as a weapon against a child, showed up at a stranger's home trying doors, resisted deputies, admitted to drinking, and spent roughly one night in jail.
Witness video of the silver sedan pursuing the boy on the sidewalk was key to deputies identifying Clemente as the suspect. The footage apparently provided enough evidence for a swift identification and arrest. Yet several important questions remain unanswered.
What motivated the initial chase? The sheriff's office has not described any prior interaction between Clemente and the child. Was there a connection, or was this a random act of vehicular aggression against a kid on a dirt bike? The record, as it stands, offers no explanation.
What did the blood-sample warrant reveal? If Clemente's blood alcohol content was significantly elevated, it would strengthen the DUI charge and potentially inform the assault charge as well. That information has not been released.
Spokane County has seen its share of serious criminal cases move through the courts. A Spokane woman was recently sentenced to 28 years for ambushing her father at his front door, a case where the court imposed severe consequences. The contrast with Clemente's next-day release is hard to ignore, even accounting for the difference in charges and outcomes.
When a court commissioner releases an accused violent offender without bail the day after arrest, it sends a message, to the defendant, to the victim, and to the community. The message is not one of accountability.
The boy on the dirt bike was lucky. He wasn't hurt. But his family now knows that the woman accused of trying to run him down with a car is already free. The homeowner who watched a stranger try his door handles on camera knows the same thing.
Attempted first-degree assault is not a misdemeanor shoplifting charge. It reflects an allegation that someone tried to cause serious bodily harm to another person. Coupling that with DUI and criminal trespass, and alleged resistance that included kicking a deputy, paints a picture of someone who posed a genuine risk. Cases involving attempted murder charges in other jurisdictions routinely result in defendants being held, or at minimum facing substantial bail. The threshold for pretrial detention should not be set so high that chasing a child with a car fails to meet it.
Courts have wide discretion in pretrial release decisions. That discretion exists for good reason. But discretion without accountability is just leniency with a gavel.
The broader debate over bail reform and pretrial release policies continues to divide lawmakers, judges, and communities. Proponents of eliminating cash bail argue it punishes poverty. Critics point to cases exactly like this one, where the charges are severe, the alleged conduct is dangerous, and the system's response amounts to a handshake and an open door. Even some judges have signaled that sentencing and detention decisions should carry a deterrent message.
Clemente is entitled to the presumption of innocence. She has been charged, not convicted. But the public is entitled to expect that when someone is accused of using a car to chase down a child, the justice system will treat the matter with the seriousness it deserves, not process it like a traffic ticket.
A kid rode his dirt bike on a sidewalk on a Monday afternoon. A car came after him. And by the next day, the driver was home free. If that doesn't warrant a harder look at who gets released and why, nothing will.
