Woman charged in string of racially motivated attacks got breaks after earlier arrests

IOWA CITY, Iowa (WHO) -- She was charged with stabbing one boyfriend in the chest in 2017 and, months later, with threatening another with a butcher's knife. She allegedly told her ex-husband that she was going to kill him during a child custody dispute.

Despite her violence and threats, chronic drug use and mental health problems over the last three years, Nicole Poole caught several breaks from Iowa's criminal justice system, court records show. The 42-year-old woman was allowed to stay out of prison and treatment before she allegedly committed a shocking string of racially motivated attacks this month.

Police allege that on Dec. 9, Poole intentionally drove her SUV onto a sidewalk to hit a 14-year-old girl outside a suburban Des Moines junior high school. She told police that she targeted the girl, who was hospitalized for two days with injuries, because she was Hispanic.

That same day, Poole is charged with driving over a curb to strike a 12-year-old black boy who was walking home from school in Des Moines.

Poole is charged with two counts of attempted murder, assault in violation of individual rights and second-offense operating while intoxicated, among other offenses.

Poole has been jailed since her arrest and is being held on a $1 million cash-only bond.