In February, a woman attempted to kidnap a child from a Target store. She actually got the child outside before the child's parents confronted her.

Police said the suspect, described as a Black adult female, approximately 40 years old, standing around 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing around 150 pounds, grabbed a 4-year-old victim from behind without consent and carried him outside of the store.

The woman only put the child down when she was confronted by the boy’s parents. She fled the scene on foot.

The incident was captured on store security video and police put out a community alert. A few days later, thanks to a tipster, she was arrested and booked.

Twenty-seven-year-old Los Angeles resident Yara Vanessa Pineda was located and taken into custody Wednesday after being spotted by someone in the area of Magnolia Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue in North Hollywood, the Los Angeles Police Department stated in a news release...

Pineda was booked on suspicion of kidnapping and was being held on $1.25 million bail.

And that's the end of that story. Kidnapping a child is a pretty serious offense. You're not going to walk on something like that...right? Well, not exactly. Pineda was given a mental health diversion on May 21.

On May 21, Pineda was sentenced to two years of a mental health diversion program. It was unclear from court records why she was released so recently after the previous arrest.

A court is allowed to grant a mental health diversion for individuals with a felony charge if they are diagnosed with a mental health disorder and do not pose a significant safety risk if treated in the community, according to the California Department of State Hospitals. The charges, however, can’t be murder, voluntary manslaughter, rape or lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14.

So some judge looked at this and, probably with the agreement of a prosecutor, decided a) this woman has a mental health problem and b) it's safe to release her for treatment. 

The judge was half right. One week after her release, police responded to a call about a "crazy lady" attempting to kidnap random children at a playground.

“There was a crazy lady running around and she was picking up little kids and the kids were running from her,” recalled a young boy named Anwar. “They got scared. She was catching them and running away with them. She asked me for candy and I said, ‘No!’ and I ran away.”

Anwar said the woman reportedly picked up his sister and later pushed her to the ground...

“I just saw the lady and she creeped from the back and grabbed [my son] and I just screamed and she let him go,” another parent recalled. “I almost had a heart attack. I was scared. I just screamed.”...

Witnesses said when police arrived, Pineda was seen throwing her bags at them and spitting at them.

She ran and police used a taser to subdue her. She's now being held without bail, at least that's the decision this week. Who knows what will happen a few months from now. Maybe the same judge will decide she needs one more chance.

To be clear, I'm not arguing that this woman is sane. I believe that she has some mental problems based on her behavior. But clearly the court made a big mistake releasing her. She is not safe to be on the streets at this point. Whatever treatment she receives needs to be given in a locked facility with no access to children.

We'll have to wait and see if prosecutors can get it right this time or if George Gascon's crew and LA's public defenders (but I repeat myself) will find another way to put her back on the street.