PORT ANGELES — A July trial has been set for a Port Angeles man charged with assaulting a Clallam Transit driver and elderly passenger before trying to commandeer the bus May 28.
Riley Edge White, 59, pleaded not guilty Friday to first-degree attempted kidnapping, first-degree attempted robbery, second-degree assault with strangulation and second-degree intentional assault for causing the reckless infliction of substantial bodily harm on a vulnerable victim.
A five-day trial is scheduled to begin July 18.
White is being held in the Clallam County jail on $30,000 bail.
Port Angeles police allege that White attacked an 80-year-old acquaintance, Angeline Olsen, and Clallam Transit operator Joy Crummett without provocation at about 1:47 p.m. May 28.
Crummett stopped the bus in the 1600 block of West 16th Street when she saw White punching and kicking Olsen in a rear-view mirror, police said.
When Crummett intervened, White began to punch and choke the 60-year-old driver, throwing her against a change machine, police said in the affidavit for probable cause.
Crummett managed to free herself from White’s grip and deactivate the bus before White slid into the driver’s seat.
The attack was captured on Clallam Transit surveillance video.
White was ordered to have a mental health evaluation before trial.
A pretrial status hearing is scheduled for July 1.
