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State v. Abbott
The Shared Driveway
The facts
The Defendant shared a common driveway with his neighbours, a married couple, in Essex County, New Jersey. The neighbours hired a contractor to pave their portion of the driveway. The Defendant obtained some asphalt from the contractor and fashioned a doorstop to keep his garage door from swinging onto the neighbours' property. The neighbours' adult son, who was visiting his parents, objected to the Defendant's doorstop. An argument escalated into a physical confrontation. The Defendant punched the neighbours' son, knocking him to the ground. At that point, the neighbour produced a hatchet and attacked the Defendant with it, while the neighbour's wife came at him with kitchen utensils. What followed was disputed by both sides. The result: all three neighbours sustained injuries from the hatchet. The Defendant also claimed to have been lacerated. The Defendant insisted that the neighbours' injuries occurred during a struggle for the hatchet, not from him wielding it — but the jury could have found otherwise. The Defendant was separately indicted for atrocious assault and battery upon each of the three neighbours.
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