The woman who hurled a shoe at Hillary Clinton when she spoke at a metal recycling conference at Mandalay Bay has been charged with two misdemeanor counts: trespassing on a restricted building or its grounds and violence against someone in that same area. Alison Michelle Ernst,36, had been charged by Las Vegas police with misdemeanor disorderly conduct last Friday, but she was released and set at large. Federal agents are searching for her to bring her to federal court.
Ernst apparently has a high regard for her own throwing prowess; the Puma shoe she fired at Clinton was from a distance of 60 feet. Secret Service Agent Edward Autelli said Ernst did not have a ticket to the restricted area of Clinton’s event and “somehow got past” the security cordoning off the area. Autelli said the shoe passed near Clinton’s head, causing her to “flinch and duck.” One police officer said Ernst “appeared to be in an agitated state but aware of what she had just done.”
There has not been confirmation whether Ernst is the woman of the same name who created a ruckus in 2012 at a court hearing for James Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 people and wounding dozens more at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. The woman in 2012 told reporters, “I tried to deliver information vital to the defense of James Holmes to the public defender.”
Clinton joked about the incident afterward, saying, “My goodness, I didn’t know that solid waste management was so controversial,” then couldn’t resist bragging, “Thank goodness she didn’t play softball like I did.”
There was no explanation as to whether Clinton meant the investigative questions she fielded regarding Benghazi.
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