ShareThisTACOMA, Wash. - The key person of interest in the Sunday slayings of four Lakewood, Wash. police officers is a career criminal with a history of violence against law enforcement officers who compares himself to Jesus and the Messiah, and who has claimed to be able to fly.
Maurice Clemmons, 37, drifted in and out of the Pierce County, Wash., Jail four times this year, most recently Nov. 24, when he bailed out pending a trial on charges of third-degree assault, malicious mischief and second-degree child rape.
The victim in the rape case was a female relative.
Clemmons has a long history of violent offenses, including crimes against police officers in Arkansas and Pierce County, according to public records and news accounts. Records show he runs a pressure-washing business and a hot dog outlet.
Clemmons has not been arrested or charged in the Lakewood police officers' deaths. Sheriff's deputies say he was seen in the area of the shootings Sunday morning. His last known address is about two miles from the scene -- a five-minute drive. Police thought they had him cornered Monday, but were disappointed when they found no trace of him.
Those factors, coupled with Clemmons' record of scuffles with police, led investigators to hunt for him.
Court records show Clemmons began acting strangely in May, when the incidents related to local charges against him took place. Family members told police about his strange behavior.
"He reportedly thinks he can fly away and at one point was found in the backyard jumping," a sheriff's report states. "He says that he is the Messiah and he is going to save the world. He talks about President Obama coming to confirm that he is the Messiah in the flesh."
The assault charge stemmed from a May 9 incident in which police said Clemmons and two associates were breaking car windows along a street. Court records say a Pierce County deputy arrived and tried to arrest the two accomplices, who fought back.
During the struggle, Clemmons emerged from a house and joined in the fight, punching the deputy in the face. A second deputy arrived, and the three men were arrested.
Jail records indicate Clemmons bailed out of jail May 11. He was charged with multiple counts of third-degree assault and malicious mischief. A subsequent investigation revealed the child-rape allegations; in July they became criminal charges.
Clemmons was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation in November. He was ruled competent to stand trial on the charges.
At the same time, a court ruling noted that the child-rape charge would be treated as a possible third strike under Washington sentencing laws. That meant Clemmons, if convicted, might spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. His trial is set to start in January.
His criminal history and run-ins with the law stretch back to Arkansas. In 1990, when he was 18, he was sentenced to 60 years in prison for burglary and theft. He had broken into the home of an Arkansas state trooper and stolen a gun, among other items.
News accounts from the time describe Clemmons as a habitual criminal. He was already serving time on other felony convictions.
"You have broken your mother's heart," he was told by an Arkansas judge who pronounced the sentence.
"I have broken my own heart," Clemmons replied.
While awaiting trial in Arkansas, Clemmons grabbed a padlock off his holding cell and tried to throw it at a bailiff. He missed, and hit his mother instead. In another pre-trial incident, Clemmons hid a wrench-sized piece of hinge in his sock just before his court appearance.
It was discovered before he could use it.
In 1998, a federal court ordered a new trial for Clemmons on the burglary conviction. It was tied to the wrench-sized hinge in his sock, which constituted a possible threat to the judge who sentenced him.
In 2000, he was paroled after serving 11 years in prison, and received clemency from then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who cited Clemmons' young age at the time of the original offenses.
Confusing accounts of his movements after that reveal court appeals and political battles between Huckabee and local prosecutors.
Court records show that the attorney defending Clemmons did not seek the judge's recusal -- that failure justified a new trial, the court ruled.
While on parole in 2001, Clemmons was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated robbery. He went back to prison on parole violations and was released three years later.
News accounts from Arkansas point to bureaucratic fumbling. Clemmons was not served with arrest warrants for the robberies until the time of his release in 2004. His attorney argued that too much time had passed since the warrants had been issued.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the charges.
A statement from Huckabee released late Sunday addressed the procedural questions surrounding Clemmons.
"He was ... paroled by the parole board once they determined he met the conditions at that time," the statement reads, in part. "He was arrested later for parole violation and taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him.
"It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior but was not kept incarcerated by either state. This is a horrible and tragic event and if found and convicted the offender should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law."
Pierce County prosecutors discovered the Arkansas arrest warrants in July and ordered Clemmons held on them. They were forced to dismiss the warrants when they found that Arkansas was no longer pursuing Clemmons.
E-mail reporter Sean Robinson at sean.robinson(at)thenewstribune.com
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit the News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash.
