Prosecutors drop bid to seek tougher sentence for Petaluma man who aided wife’s suicide

The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office has dropped its bid to prosecute a Petaluma man for felony voluntary manslaughter after he helped his wife kill herself, a decision that will allow a judge to sentence the man for a lesser crime.

David Clement, 65, has been in custody at the Sonoma County Jail since his arrest on Jan. 10, the day he called 911 and told a dispatcher he helped his wife hang herself from a tree in Bodega Bay. On Friday, prosecutors announced in court they will not appeal a judge’s decision to dismiss the manslaughter charge, which could have brought an 11-year prison sentence. Clement has pleaded no contest to felony aiding suicide, which carries a maximum three-year prison term.

Clement’s attorney, public defender Scott Fishman, praised prosecutors’ decision and said he will ask Judge Robert LaForge to consider immediately releasing Clement from custody Sept. 26 when he is in court to be sentenced.

“From the beginning it’s been a tragic situation for everybody, but we also think it’s a tragedy he’s been in custody for so long,” Fishman said.

“I think it is important for people to know he’s 65 and has never been convicted of a crime in his life. He’s absolutely not a danger and he was really fulfilling his wife’s wishes,” he said.

District Attorney Jill Ravitch said her office had charged Clement with two felony crimes, voluntary manslaughter and aiding suicide, because he failed to seek help for his wife and instead took “extraordinary steps” to help her end her life. It is illegal to help someone commit suicide in California, although a state law allows people with terminal illnesses to seek life-ending medications from a doctor.

“This victim was not facing a terminal disease, but rather was unable to find resources to combat chronic pain, addiction and depression,” Ravitch said in an email Monday. “Those resources exist, and hopefully those who know someone contemplating suicide will help direct them to those resources before choosing to assist in hastening their death.”

According to Clement, his wife Debra Bales, 52, had become despondent and determined to die after learning she would no longer receive prescriptions for the pain medications, including the potent opioid fentanyl. She had relied on the drugs for about two decades. The pair, who were not living together but still in contact, traveled to Bodega Bay together and spent multiple days discussing how Bales should die. Ultimately, Clement tied a rope around a tree and handed the other end to Bales, who tied it around her neck and jumped to her death, according to court testimony.

Fishman asked Sonoma County judges for leniency, arguing the case is really about a failed medical system that enabled Bales to become reliant on at least a half-dozen different types of prescription painkillers and anti-anxiety medications and then abruptly required she stop taking them.

Bales feared the painful process of detox, which she had experienced before, and she planned to die after taking her last dosage of fentanyl, according to Clement’s court testimony. Clement said she asked him to help her die and so he did.

In August, Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Dana Simonds dismissed the voluntary manslaughter charge after hearing Fishman’s arguments that prosecutors didn’t provide evidence showing Clement was an active participant in Bales’ death.

Prosecutors tried to reinstate the manslaughter charge by petitioning an appeals court in San Francisco. But on Aug. 24 a three-judge panel with the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco denied the district attorney’s petition to be heard.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.