Gallery members burst into cheers Tuesday as a judge ordered that Tanya Leffler, the woman accused in a 2014 vehicular homicide and separate drug-distribution case, remain in jail until her January trial.
“You are a danger to this community,” Clark County Superior Judge Daniel Stahnke said. “I’m not going to let you out of jail.”
On Tuesday, Stahnke found that Leffler, 35, has repeatedly violated the conditions of her release. She had been out on bail for a third time recently when she allegedly tested positive for methamphetamine use. She also was picked up on a warrant when she didn’t show up for an Oct. 22 court appearance. Members of the U.S. Marshals Service took Leffler into custody Oct. 27 near Salem, Ore.
The Battle Ground woman allegedly was driving high on methamphetamine on April 14, 2014, when she struck and killed motorcyclist James Luden, 54, of Vancouver. Luden was stopped for traffic on Padden Parkway when the crash occurred.
In August, while out on bail in the vehicular homicide case, Leffler violated her release conditions by possessing methamphetamine with the intent to sell it and by growing marijuana, court records said. She posted bail a second time but was back in court days later for violating the conditions of her release again. She misrepresented where she was living and failed to report to correction officials, court documents read.
A judge granted Leffler’s release again, but she allegedly tested positive for methamphetamine use after an Oct. 15 urinalysis. Law enforcement later learned she had moved to the Salem area, in violation of the conditions of her release, and was there without permission of the court, according to court records.
During her Tuesday hearing, Leffler denied all of the violations. She declined to say anything further.
Her retained attorney in the vehicular homicide case, Clayton Spencer, requested that he be removed from Leffler’s case, citing a breach in their contract. Stahnke granted the motion. Leffler said she wants her court-appointed attorney, Heather Carroll, who’s representing her in the drug distribution case, to handle both cases.
The vehicular homicide trial is set for Jan. 19. The other case is set to begin trial March 7.
