The sister of cop killer Maurice Clemmons was released from prison Monday.
LaTanya Clemmons, 37, served two years of the five-year prison sentence she was handed for helping her brother’s getaway driver after four Lakewood police officers were gunned down at a Parkland coffee shop in November 2009.
She was released from the state women’s prison in Purdy.
LaTanya Clemmons qualified for early release because she was a first-time nonviolent offender and because she behaved while locked up, state Department of Corrections officials have said. She was also given credit for 301 days she spent in the Pierce County Jail while awaiting her trial and sentencing.
A jury convicted LaTanya Clemmons in June 2010 on two counts of rendering criminal assistance.
Prosecutors argued that she helped her brother’s friend, Dorcus Allen, evade police after he drove Maurice Clemmons to and from the coffee shop where Clemmons fatally shot Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Tina Griswold, Greg Richards and Ronald Owens.
She gave Allen $50 and drove him to a motel where he hid out.
A Seattle police officer later shot and killed Maurice Clemmons after a two-county manhunt.
A state appeals court threw out LaTanya Clemmons’ conviction last month, saying there was no evidence she knew Allen was an accomplice. Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist has said he will appeal that decision.
stacia.glenn@thenewstribune.com253-597-8653
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