A woman has pleaded guilty to pushing her 16-year-old friend from a bridge at a popular swimming area near Vancouver.
The Columbian reports 19-year-old Taylor Smith pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment March 18 in Clark County District Court.
Prosecutors are recommending no jail time when Smith is sentenced later this month.
PUSHER ‘GUILTY’: Taylor Smith entered a guilty plea on a reckless endangerment charge tied to a viral video incident in August in which she pushed 16-year-old Jordan Holgerson from a 60-foot bridge into a Washington swimming hole. https://t.co/HY9GHsZ54r pic.twitter.com/WauO98Eop2
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) March 18, 2019
Jordan Holgerson was pushed off of a bridge in Vancouver, Washington, on August 7. She was standing atop the Moulton Falls bridge, which sits above the Lewis River in Clark County.
A cellphone video shows Holgerson looking down on the water while someone off the screen counts down.
Holgerson hesitates, but then someone pushed her from behind.
“I went to the top of the bridge and my other—my friend … she came up to the bridge with me,” Holgerson told KATU from her hospital bed as she described the moments leading up to the push.
“And so, she was counting down, but I didn’t think anything of it. And I was like, ‘No, don’t count down, like, I won’t go if you count down. I’m not ready.’ And then, she pushed me.”
Holgerson suffered six broken ribs, a punctured lung, and air bubbles in her chest.
Here’s the bridge in Yacolt a teenager was shoved off of, she’s in the hospital recovering after breaking her ribs. #LiveOnK2 https://t.co/9IZ660iNwl pic.twitter.com/Rub8YlvuBu
— Reed Buterbaugh (@Reed_PDX) August 9, 2018
Holgerson “Asked” For it
Smith said Holgerson “asked her for a push.”
“She wanted to jump and she was scared, and she had asked me to give her a push,” said Smith in a televised interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” show.
Smith’s comments follow Holgerson speaking about how she thought her friend should spend time in jail for her action.
“Well at first I didn’t really want Taylor to get in trouble, but now that I’ve thought about it more, I’m kind of wanting her to sit in jail and think about at least what she did,” Holgerson told NBC’s “Today” on Aug. 16.
“I kind of got mad because the rest of my summer’s gone and I’m probably going to be recovering for the rest of the school year,” Holgerson said.
“I thought she would be fine,” Smith said in the ABC interview. “She wanted to jump, she just was scared she wouldn’t be able to.”
“I didn’t think about the consequences,” she added.
‘She Could Have Killed My Daughter’
The identity of the woman who pushed Jordan off the bridge is known to Jordan and some family members.
Back when the incident occurred, Smith had not yet stepped forward.
Jordan’s mother, Genelle Holgerson, told Fox News she believed Smith should turn herself in voluntarily.
“My daughter’s gonna have a long road to recovery and I think that she should probably just turn herself in—realize what she did wrong. This is not okay,” she said.
“I’m very upset with her. She is an adult, and I’m sure she should have known better. She could have killed my daughter,” Holgerson told The Daily News. “She is lucky she is not paralyzed or dead. We’re lucky she is going to recover and not have permanent injuries.”
Jumping from the bridge is illegal—and pushing someone off, potentially criminal. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
Jordan told KGW that the woman who pushed her had apologized.
“It could’ve ended a lot worse,” Jordan said.
NTD News reporter Zachary Steiber and The Epoch Times reporter John Smithies contributed to this article
