PHILIPSBURG–A 22-year-old woman was sentenced to 120 hours community service, sixty of which were suspended, on two years’ probation, for assault with a weapon during an incident on October 16, 2017. The Court found it legally and convincingly proven that Quanice Anais Hodge, together with another woman, had punched a woman in her face and had used a Taser gun during an argument outside an apartment complex in Hope Estate.
The victim was a resident of White and Yellow Cross Care Foundation’s guided-living facility. Her attacker lived in the same apartment complex.
According to the victim, she felt that gel was thrown in her face while she was outside the place where she lives. She was “tasered” twice to the side of her face, was scratched in her neck and punched in her face by two attackers, until two neighbours came to her rescue.
Witnesses of the incident, a nurse among them, saw that a Taser gun was aimed. They heard a crackling sound, after which the victim fell to the ground backwards and was punched. The second suspect also hit her in the face, witnesses said, but Hodge denied there was a second person involved. The victim sustained a swollen face in the incident.
The defendant did not deny the altercation but claimed the victim was harassing her. “She was very aggressive. This is not the first time we had an altercation. I hit her once. I only took the Taser with me to scare her. I’m sorry for hitting her,” she told the Judge.
The first offender does not have a school diploma or a job and said she carried a Taser gun for protection.
Based on the victim’s “highly specific” statement and the affirmative statement of the nurse, the Prosecutor found assault with a weapon proven.
“Obviously, the two women were no friends. They had arguments before. One landed in hospital and the other at the police station,” the Prosecutor said. Hodge was arrested March 18 and released three days later.
Considering the defendant’s relatively young age and clean criminal record the Prosecutor did not call for a prison sentence but demanded 120 hours of community service, 60 of which were to be suspended, on two years’ probation.
The Judge found assault with a weapon legally and convincingly proven and said he attached great importance to the nurse’s statement.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/79847-community-service-for-using-taser-gun
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