Jury finds woman guilty of assault
Courtenay Fraser has been found guilty of assaulting an animal control officer during a prolonged exchange that involved a flying knife, smashing bottles and a dog being tasered multiple times.
It took a jury less than an hour yesterday to return guilty verdicts on two charges of assault against Fraser, at the end of a two-day trial in Napier District Court.
Earlier in the day, the jury heard Fraser, 21, say she was about ‘‘10 out of 10 on the drunk scale’’. She admitted she might have been verbally abusive towards Wayne Butcher, but was adamant she had not assaulted him as he claimed.
Butcher, a Napier City Council animal control officer, arrived at Fraser’s home in Wellesley Rd, Napier, on the evening of November 24 last year after reports that occupants were threatening to set their pitbull-crosses on dogs being walked by passersby.
He found Fraser and two men on a couch outside under a tree. They said there were no dogs and became aggressive towards him.
Butcher said Fraser threw a jug of water at him then assaulted him with an empty glass bottle. She then smashed the bottle and lunged at him multiple times as he backed down the street.
At one stage he approached his van, but retreated after a knife was thrown at him.
By the time police arrived, Fraser had taken her dog, Caesar, and holed up in her bedroom. She did not respond to police calls over a megaphone, and officers had to enter the back door and break down her bedroom door.
Caesar was tasered several times – Fraser said seven – by police, who were concerned he would attack them.
Fraser, a sales assistant and event promoter, told the court she had consumed more than 20 bottles of beer over the day and was ‘‘highly intoxicated’’. Asked to rate her drunkenness on a scale of one to 10, she put it at 10.
She admitted throwing water over Butcher and verbally abusing him, but denied assaulting him.
She said she ‘‘freaked out’’ when Butcher called police, because ‘‘I thought I was going to be arrested and that they’d take Caesar’’.
Seeing Caesar getting tasered was ‘‘the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life’’. ‘‘They should never