The woman who hurled a shoe at Hillary Clinton while she was giving a speech in Las Vegas has been released from jail, officials said Friday.
Alison Michelle Ernst, 36, was arrested and booked at the Clark County Jail after throwing a shoe at the former U.S. secretary of state at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. Security guards immediately intervened and took Ernst out of the ballroom.
She told Associated Press that she threw a shoe and dropped some papers. However, she did not identify herself and neither did she say why she did so. Brian Spellacy, Secret Service supervisory special agent in Las Vegas, said an orange and black athletic shoe was recovered from the stage.
Ernst, who was not a ticketed guest at the event, was released on her own recognizance just before midnight, Thursday, said Tess Driver, a spokeswoman for the Clark County District Attorney's Office, reportsReuters. She has been slapped with a misdemeanour disorderly conduct summons and a hearing is set for June 24, Driver said.
Clinton, the potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate has been touring the country for paid speeches to industry organizations and Democratic Party groups. She ducked and the shoe did not hit her. However, she quickly composed herself and cracked jokes about the incident.
Prosecutors have not decided whether to charge Ernst in the incident, Driver said. If convicted Ernst could face up to a year in jail for violating a county ordinance during the Thursday incident.
Shoe-throwing is considered as a form of protest. Former President George W Bush was also a victim of shoehurling. An Iraqi journalist threw a shoe at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in December 2008.
