The trial against Taylor Smith, 19, continues months after she was charged with pushing her friend, Jordan Holgerson, off a 60 foot-tall bridge in Washington state. With the news that Smith was offered a plea deal, Jordan is opening up about the August incident and how she feels about her former friend now. “Somedays, I kind of want her to go to jail, but some days I think that might be a little too harsh,” Jordan said in an interview with NBC News. “In court I was kind of hoping for justice and her being sentenced, and everything just kind of being over.”
You can watch Jordan’s interview below. The 16-year-old suffered six broken ribs and two punctured lungs after her fall, and is in physical therapy to manage the pain. She said that since ribs take so long to heal, even just turning her abdomen sometimes hurts. The incident occurred when Jordan and Taylor were with their friends at a creek in Washington. Jordan had said that she was going to jump off the bridge, but became scared and had second thoughts. In video taken that day, Jordan is standing on the edge and hesitating. Taylor can be heard off camera telling her, repeatedly, to jump.
Without warning, Taylor pushes her. Experts compared Jordan hitting the water from that height akin to smacking into cement. Taylor pleaded not guilty to reckless endangerment in December 2018. According to her defense attorney, Christie Emrich, Taylor was offered a plea deal in court on February 11. The details of the deal have not been shared, but Jordan’s mother, Genelle Holgerson, said that her family knows what the offer is, and is alright with it.
Taylor apologized in an interview with 60 Minutes in August, but Jordan didn’t accept. She said in her own interview with NBC News that she wanted to see Taylor do jail time.