(PHOTO, VIDEO, AND STORY: KHQ.COM)
UPDATE:
The man who came to KHQ earlier this week and admitted to slapping several women on their backsides along the Centennial Trail made his first court appearance on Friday and is being charged with 11 counts of Assault with Sexual Motivation.
Jonathan Smith's bond was set at $11,000 -- $1000 for each charge -- Friday morning.
Smith showed up at KHQ on Wednesday to read a statement to his victims. In the statement he admitted to the assaults saying he "saw butts that he liked and slapped them." Smith also offered an apology and the opportunity for victims to confront him this weekend in downtown Spokane.
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Smith was arrested Thursday night.
Despite his taped confession at KHQ studios, Smith pleaded not guilty Friday morning in court.
Smith is still listed on the Spokane County Jail Inmate Roster as of Friday morning and it is unknown if he'll be able to bond out, however when he was at KHQ on Wednesday he claimed to be broke.
Previous Coverage: In a four-minute video confession, 28-year-old Jonathan Smith showed remorse as he apologized to the dozens of women he says he attacked on the Centennial Trail last week.
The video gained a ton of traction online, with a lot of people asking the same question: Why wasn’t Smith arrested?
“It’s a reasonable frustration,” said Spokane Police Officer Shane Phillips. “To be honest we would love to do that, but at the end of the day it wouldn’t do good to arrest a person and have them walk.”
Officer Phillips says if they arrested Smith, he could have a right to a speedy trial and get out of jail if charges are not filed in time.
“Sadly there were a lot of victims,” said Phillips. “And each one of those people have to be individually interviewed.”
Officer Phillips says the investigation is taking longer than he’d like, and there is only one detective on the case.
“We’d love to have more cops on the street,” said Phillips. “But it’s the nature of the beast where we are right now.”
Officer Phillips says to build a strong case, the detective needs to interview all the victims and file paperwork for every interview before filing charging documents.
“Our goals is to arrest him [Smith] ASAP,” said Phillips. “That’s why we became cops.”
Officer Phillips did not say when they plan to arrest Smith, but hope to before the weekend.