Judge's 48-Hour Release Raises Questions About Accountability in El Dorado County

A woman facing murder charges in a fatal DUI crash has been granted a temporary 48-hour release by an El Dorado County judge—a decision that’s raising eyebrows about how serious crimes are treated in the court system.

Cheyanne Wright, accused of killing 84-year-old Joan Allison in a May 2025 DUI collision in El Dorado Hills, received approval from Judge Michael McLaughlin to leave jail briefly to visit a sick relative. The catch? She’s been fitted with an ankle monitor and must report back to custody on Sunday at noon. Wright also faces child abuse charges because her two young children were passengers in the vehicle at the time of the crash. El Dorado County Chief Probation Officer Kaci L. Smith said the department is“taking extra steps, outside of our normal operating protocols, to manually monitor this case for the next 48 hours,”and is coordinating with local law enforcement in the jurisdiction where Wright was granted permission to travel.

This decision lands at an awkward moment for Judge McLaughlin’s judicial track record. He’s the same judge who declined to order custody for Carl Cacconie last summer after a jury convicted him of child sex crimes. Cacconie was supposed to return a month later for sentencing—facing up to 18 years in prison—but instead faked his own death and vanished. The FBI arrested him this month in Scottsdale, Arizona, after he’d evaded authorities for nearly 10 months. Cacconie is now scheduled to appear before Judge McLaughlin on Monday.

The timing raises an uncomfortable question: how much discretion should judges have in granting temporary release to defendants in high-stakes cases? The probation department’s commitment to extra oversight in Wright’s case suggests they recognize the stakes are real. But whether those precautions are enough—or whether they should have been unnecessary in the first place—is something the community is watching closely.

Judge McLaughlin will have another opportunity to demonstrate his approach to accountability when Cacconie appears before him this week.