Sentencing delayed for woman who abducted child to show lax security

By Cara McCoy

Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010 | 12:47 p.m.

The sentencing hearing for a woman convicted on charges stemming from the September 2008 snatching of an elementary school student in a bid to highlight lax school security was postponed this morning.

Elaine Clermont was set to be sentenced today on a felony count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping as well as one count of false imprisonment, which is a gross misdemeanor.

On the felony, she could be sentenced to up to six years; on the misdemeanor, she could be sentenced to up to a year in jail.

The hearing was postponed because of delays related to a pre-sentencing investigation report.

Clermont and another woman, Laurinda Drake, were accused of abducting a Jo Mackey Elementary School first-grader in September 2008 after the student wandered away from school.

Drake was acquitted on similar charges in a separate trial last year.

Clermont is now set to be sentenced March 4.

Authorities said the two women took the student to highlight problems with school security. Before contacting police, they contacted news outlets and asked them to meet them at the School District board office, where they would surrender the child.

Drake and Clermont told authorities they had taken the student to show that someone could easily remove a child from a school without proper safety measures. The first-grader was unharmed.

Clermont was taken into custody after the October 2009 guilty verdict was reached but has been out of custody awaiting sentencing since posting $10,000 bail.

At trial she was found not guilty on one count of first-degree kidnapping.