PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Judge George Wood increased Timothy P. Smith’s bail Thursday after the accused getaway driver in a vehicle assault last month failed to charge his electronic home monitoring device.
The bail was increased from $50,000 to $60,000. Smith remained in the Clallam County jail Thursday afternoon.
Smith, 27, will be tried June 13 on charges of first-degree rendering criminal assistance for allegedly driving Michael J. Moyle from the scene of an April 13 wreck and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Police said Moyle, 28, intentionally rammed a car, which crashed into a telephone pole on South Laurel Street. Its four passengers, including two small children, were hospitalized.
Smith’s most recent arrest was Tuesday after the court-ordered ankle bracelet, which tracks his movement, stopped transmitting.
Honest mistake
Smith’s attorney, Jonathan Morrison, argued he committed an honest mistake by not charging the ankle bracelet and didn’t deserve to have his bail increased.
“I don’t see him trying to circumvent anything,” he said, adding Smith was in his home at the time as required by his curfew.
But Wood said he found it hard to believe that Smith remained asleep, as he claimed he had been, when the bracelet’s alarm sounded one hour before the battery died.
“If it’s on his leg, it leaves me wondering why that wouldn’t wake him up,” he said.
Smith was first arrested after the hit-and-run when he turned himself in to authorities April 14.
He was arrested again April 20 after police said they found a stolen motorcycle in his auto body shop and methamphetamine in his home.
Smith also will be tried July 11 on charges of second-degree possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance.
Moyle will be tried June 20 on first-degree assault of a child, two counts of second-degree assault, second-degree assault of a child — all of which come with an alternative charge of vehicular assault — and hit-and-run injury accident.
Moyle remained in jail on $500,000 bail Thursday.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
