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Updated: 4:35 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30, 2009 | Posted: 7:22 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009
A man with an extensive criminal past -- whose 95-year prison sentence was commuted in Arkansas nearly a decade ago -- was released on $150,000 bail Wednesday for a child rape charge.
Plenty of people knew that 37-year-old Maurice Clemmons posed a danger to the community before he allegedly executed those officers.
The day a Pierce County judge agreed to release Clemmons from jail, KIRO 7 Investigators learned that Pierce County deputies got a copy of his mug shot along with a written warning to be extra cautious if they needed to approach him.
Lakewood Police Guild President Brian Wurts is furious Clemmons was walking the streets.
Our elected officials need to figure out why these people are out. You have 5 percent of the people out there committing 90 percent of the crime -- not against just us, but all of you. We've got to hold these people accountable we've got to keep them locked up," Wurts said.
Court records show Clemmons currently faces at least 13 criminal charges, in three separate cases, in two states.
He's accused of assaulting on two Pierce County deputies, raping a 12-year-old relative, smashing a neighbors window with a brick, and violating parole in Arkansas for robbery, theft, and burglary plus having a weapon in his hand while committing a crime.
Clemmons was issued a persistent offender notice on Nov. 6 that said his charges for child rape is a "most serious offence" and "if convicted, your sentence will be life without the possibility of parole" under the state's three strikes law.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said despite his pleas for a judge to set Clemmons bail higher, the law forced the judge to allow some kind of bail.
In Washington state in all cases but death penalty cases, require some kind of bail. So as prosecutors we're in there, in court, constantly arguing for the maximum amount of bail we think we can get from a judge, Lindquist said.
Court papers for the recent rape charges said Clemmons' wife "reported that her husband had been acting crazy" claimed he was Jesus and made his 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old niece disrobe while he talked about the end of the world.
Clemmons was allegedly naked during the incident, his wife said in court documents.
Clemmons was also issued a $40,000 bail on an alleged assault on Pierce County deputies in May.
Records on file in Pierce County said Clemmons was ordered to have an examination at Western State Mental Hospital to determine his sanity, but the exam never took place.
His wife told deputies that Clemmons started "acting crazy" last summer.
In 1989, Clemmons, then 17, was convicted in Little Rock for aggravated robbery. He was paroled in 2000 after then-Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted Clemmons' 95-year prison sentence. Huckabee, who was criticized during his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 for the number of clemencies and commutations he granted, cited Clemmons' age at the time of the sentence.
After his release from prison, Clemmons violated his parole and was returned to prison in July 2001. He was released March 18, 2004, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper.
Police said Clemmons should be considered armed and extremely dangerous.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the Pierce County Sheriff's Department tip line at 1-866-977-2362.
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