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Miriam Ann Clinton looks back at her lawyer, Jacob Wieselman, as the judge confirms she was driving with a suspended license and that she has a two-year old child.

(Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian )

The Lake Oswego woman accused in a hit-and-run crash that injured a bicyclist entered a not-guilty plea in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Friday.

Miriam Ann Clinton, who has had multiple traffic offenses, appeared before the judge with her lawyer, Jacob Wieselman. The judge set her next appearance for Sept. 6.

Clinton was accompanied by four other women, and as the group walked out of the courtroom in downtown Portland, it was surrounded by journalists. Neither Clinton nor Wieselman made any comments.

The 29-year-old is facing charges of hit and run and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the

that left Henry Schmidt lying on the side of Southwest Barbur Boulevard near the Beaverton-Hillsdale turnoff. The 20-year-old Portland bicyclist was found by a TriMet driver and taken to the hospital by ambulance with several broken bones and lacerated spleen.

Schmidt, a Lewis & Clark College student, was riding home from his job as a food runner for Pok Pok restaurant when he got a flat tire. He started walking his bike along Barbur, with his helmet on and lights shining, and was struck a few minutes later, he said.

Clinton, who was driving with a suspended driver's license, turned herself in Thursday. Police found her car, a black 2011 Subaru Legacy, at a body shop in Wilsonville.

According to the charging document, the tampering charge accuses Clinton of "unlawfully and knowingly" destroying, altering and concealing physical evidence so that it wouldn't be available in the official proceeding.

Wieselman said he called the district attorney's office Thursday morning, after Clinton told him she might have been involved in the crash. He said he arranged for his client to visit the police station at 2 p.m. The lawyer also said he called the body shop and told the workers to halt the repairs and release the car to police without a warrant.

"We stopped the repairs when we realized that the car might be evidence for the police," Wieselman said.

Clinton works as a waitress at a restaurant in Lake Oswego and is the single mother to a 2 1/2-year-old boy, her attorney said.

She was driving with a suspended license, according to records from the Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division. She has had her license suspended four times since 2009 and had accumulated

since 2007.

Clinton has been cited for speeding five times since July 2007. Other citations include improper use of a seat belt, failure to obey a traffic device or signal, driving while using a cell phone and driving while suspended.

Meanwhile, Schmidt was released from OHSU Hospital on Thursday, but is looking at another three or four months of recovery.

He said he was happy to learn that somebody will take responsibility for the crash and that the justice system has worked.

"Knowing that investigations will be successful keeps people from committing crimes", he said. "I'm reassured from that standpoint. However, I'm not celebrating."

-- Simina Mistreanu